Whether Euthanasia should be legalized has long been a controversy all around the world. Some people think that we have the right to determine to keep on living or not, while other people hold a perspective that we shouldn’t give up our lives easily. According to the studies, Taiwan ranks number three in the world in the quality of death index. Meanwhile, it is believed that Taiwan possesses a sound medical and health care system, which makes people live much longer than in other countries. However, why does the exhortation of euthanasia in Taiwan keep rising?
There’re some facts that we often ignore. Despite the advanced medical technology, the patients might suffer much agony when their lives are prolonged as their family or friends wish to. We always cling to the belief that miracles are likely to happen in the future when one is still alive. However, we seldom think of how painful and undignified it is for the patients to lie on the bed, not being able to do anything. It is just like another kind of torment for them. Thus, that’s why more and more people hope to make euthanasia legalized. People rather die with dignity than live under misery for months or even years.
Probably most of you have heard that Switzerland is one of the countries which allows euthanasia. In fact, conducting “lethal injection” by other people is illegal, the legal one is called “assisted suicide”, which means the patients themselves take up the drug according to the doctor’s prescription, while the family and friends can only accompany him. Nevertheless, one should go through many levels if he or she would like to get the service from Dignitas — the most well-known assisted suicide organization. The process is very troublesome.
Many people misunderstand Dignitas. They might think it is an organization which helps people carry out suicide. However, it is not exactly like this. Among the members of Dignitas, only 3% of them really finished the whole process. What Dignitas spends most time doing is to let the patients know that dying is not the only way to go and provide them professional medical assistance.
Most countries currently are not allowed euthanasia or assisted suicide. One of the reasons is that people can’t accept the doctors become the role like Death. Doctors are the ones who help save lives instead of letting others die. When we regard euthanasia as a homicide, most people would not agree with it, but when we become the one who would like to end up our own lives, we probably would wish it is legalized. Very few people would talk about “death”, they all think it is inauspicious, but death is also a part of our lives, why don’t we become more open-minded while talking about it?
In Taiwan, the first petition about euthanasia was in 1986, but it eventually flew under the radar. It is quite hard for Taiwan to allow it. After all, in the past, it spent lot of time for people discussing “Patient Right to Autonomy”, not to mention euthanasia.
There is no absolute right or wrong on whether euthanasia should be legalized, what we must do is to respect everyone’s thought. I hope in the future, our lives can become more carefree and promising.