Euthanasia

Euthanasia became the topic of discussion during the past week in Singapore. I think it appeared in the newspapers on at least two separate days. Maybe, I'm missing something but all I see are objections, objections and more objections. Worst of all, the church and its comments appeared. As usual, I think they look like bullshit arguments.

"Human beings do not have the right to die." so they said. So I checked up Dictionary.com and it says rights is "Something that is due to a person or governmental body by law, tradition, or nature." According to Singapore's Penal Code, attempting to commit suicide is punishable with a year's imprisonment or a fine.

Legally? No.
Traditionally? Don't think so.
Nature? Doubt so.

But euthanasia can be classified into two types. Passive and active. I only consider active euthanasia to be assisted suicide. Passive euthanasia is just pulling the plug on someone who can no longer live unassisted by life support devices (and of course, he/she must want to pull the plug).

Face it. We die anyways. So let's be a little practical, shall we? Get our heads out of fairyland and stop indulging in the "life is sacred" crap.

I am all for passive euthanasia and inclined to accept active euthanasia as well. Why?

Imagine that you have an incurable or terminal illness.
Sucks eh? But not enough to want to end your life here and now?

Perhaps you're so weak that you can hardly leave your hospital bed. Or worst, you're bedridden.
You can't even fulfill your own last wishes.
You can't reach the plug to the life support equipment.
You can't kill yourself even if you want to.

The hospital bills are piling like crazy. A few hundred here and a couple of thousands there. Honey, the hospital director is highly unlikely to say "You know what? We'll absorb the cost."

Your family members aren't exactly well off. Earning just enough to get by... and now this? But wait. Maybe financial reasons are not good enough for issues regarding the "sanctity of life."

What if your children are unfilial? Maybe your spouse wants a divorce? No relatives around? This is reality. Shit happens. Not everybody is lucky enough to have the emotional and psychological support offered by kin.

AND you know what? Now you want to die. For whatever reason there maybe. But you can't. Because somebody who is healthy, alive and kicking thinks that life is god-given and therefore you cannot, must not, should not kill yourself.

Life is sacred. Not because it has anything to do with the sky daddy in heaven. It's because it is the only chance you have before you return to non-existence. If there is nothing else for you to live for and your death can, in some way, be useful, why not?

I don't want to go into the bullshit beliefs that god exist. But I think people who refuse to allow those terminally ill people who want to end their lives from ending it are sick masochists. They prefer to have people suffer till the end of their lives because of some entity they conjured up during the Bronze Age.

Sick. And stupid.