My country is presently discussing the passing of a law allowing euthanasia, and as always with touchy issues, al demagogy and self-righteousness is running amok. The media are as usually in these cases stoking the flames of intolerance and radicalism, which makes me sick. But of course euthanasia is a serious issue, and I feel like I should as well give my opinion.
I’ve been a physician for 30 years, and treating very sick patients, with a great deal of suffering. And what I have watched is that the overwhelming majority don’t want to die. They don’t want to suffer. And often, when they’re in great suffering at the end of their lives, they ask to be left alone, to just die in peace.
And that’s what I think is the main problem – the insistence on futile care when people are dying, driven by our culture of “doing everything possible” and the families and caretakers’ sense of guilt. That’s really the big problem with terminally ill patients.
That said, I think euthanasia should be approved and regulated for the few people that request it. But most of all, I think we should question futile care, and let people die from their illnesses when we cannot make them better.
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