I've wanted to write about this for a long time.

Euthanasia.

Is it an immoral thing to do? Let's say you're a doctor, and you're asked by a patient to end his/her suffering. Will you do it?

He's suffering in this world. Can't eat, drink, or do anything, basically. He's dying, slowly, but surely.

Can you bring yourself to do it?

You know, a few weeks before my grandpa passed away, there was this time where the family had to decide whether to insert a feeding tube into him. He had this condition where he could no longer swallow anything, even water.

My extended family was extremely divided on this matter. Some of my relatives felt he had suffered enough - he could no longer recognise anyone besides my family, could not talk, do the things he normally did, had to be assisted when going to the toilet, and was in constant pain. Why prolong his suffering?

My mum, particularly, felt that as long as he could be happy with his family around him, why end his life?

We couldn't ask my grandpa for his opinion. Think he couldn't understand.

Well we inserted the feeding tube. And a urinary catheter as well. He later passed away 'cause of an infection caused by the catheter. Apparently its quite easy to get an infection 'cause of the insertion.

You know, my uncle, a doctor, specifically warned that the risk of infection from inserting a catheter was quite high.

So we prolonged his life, or suffering, watever way u look at it, for a few weeks.

Worth it?

Oh at the end of his life, just before he passed away, the doctors at the hospital did not perform CPR or other life-saving measures for him. That is called "passive euthanasia" and is allowed in most medical societies.

I guess I was guilty of passive euthanasia as well. I was right next to him when he passed away, taking his pulse, feeling his life slip slowly away, and finally when it did I didn't do anything.

I couldn't bring myself to perform CPR on his fragile body.


Now compare that to Active Euthanasia, or assisting in the suicide of a patient who requested it.
And Involuntary Euthanasia, or the removal of life support to someone who has been in a "persistent vegetative state" and probably never will recover consciousness.

Active euthanasia is probably unacceptable to most people, me too, probably, but involuntary euthanasia?

I don't know. The whole idea of having the power to extend a patient's life, but having the responsibility to exercise it, bothers me.