The "What If" Factor

Medical science provides us with so many options regarding our lives. Our mortality rate is lower than ever, and as we progress medically, that number continues to decrease. With that being said, it presents us with the "what-if" factor.

What if we decide to end our life, or the life of a loved one in order to prevent them from suffering a long dying process and a cure is found that would have provided a longer life?

What if the person who is suffering has a change of heart regarding the euthanasia but can't vocalize their change of heart?

What if there are some religious rules that we are breaking and will suffer the consequences of those actions in our after-life?

I believe that it is this factor that keeps the process of Active Euthanasia under such control. When we allow someone to die naturally, by either keeping them off life support or not resuscitating them, we keep ourselves from being held accountable for their death.

Kantian vs. Utilitarian Ethics of Euthanasia...

Euthanasia is often considered a moral issue. Two most famous ethicists are John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) and Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Aside from the cultural and religious aspects on dying, Utilitarianism and Kantian Ethics discuss how we, as humans, should pursue our lives. Both theories play an important role in how one views the rights and wrongs of euthanasia.

Mill, a British philosopher, supported the Utilitarianism perspective which is known as, "The Greatest Happiness" principle. When discussing utilitarianism in regards to euthanasia, it is safe to say that Mill is in favor of Active Euthanasia, as it ends the suffering of the person and the choice to end life is the greatest happiness for the greatest number. An additional assumption held by the Utilitarian Theory includes the pursuit of happiness. Mill believed in two classes of pleasure: higher and lower. Higher being a person's intellect and lower being the body. When a person is faced with the end of their life, it is said that we should agree that the absence of pain and the pride of the person should be taken into great consideration. When a terminally ill person is no longer capable of intellectual pursuits, is in constant pain and must rely on others for all of their needs, Mill feels that it is a more dignified choice to end the suffering, therefor fulfilling the "absence of pain" principle (pain including one's inability to seek higher pleasure through intellectual pursuit). This leads me to believe that in this case, the intention to end suffering is more meaningful than the act of euthanasia itself.

Kant, however, provides us with a very different perspective to consider. His theories on mortality are derived from the Greek "deontology," which means obligation. Kant, often hard to understand, has many different terms for different things. The one that I see fit for euthanasia is the "Formula of the End in Itself." According to Kant's Ethics, "the more difficult the duty, the greater the moral value." This means that choosing to tough out the dying process naturally is more important than ending it at will. In addition, Kantian Ethics believe that the law should be followed to establish greater satisfaction in knowing that one has followed the law. Kantian Ethics also state that the intentions of an act are more important than the act itself. Some may fear that Kant's theory on euthanasia is that if one feels it is okay to end the life of a "competent" terminally ill patient, then society might also feel that it their duty to decide the fate of "incompetent" people who may not contribute to society, are handicapped or elderly.

It's Life or Death

I don't think anyone is ever truly prepared to make life and death decisions about a person, especially a loved one. I know that my family wasn't in the Spring of 2001, when my grandfather took a turn for the worse. I walked into his room expecting to see Papa the way I had always seen him...through a child's eyes. He was a strong man; muscular. His head was covered with soft brown hair that only showed a small amount of grey considering he was 70. The day my dad called me, I walked into Papa's room and I hardly recognized the small man lying in his bed. He looked at me and said, "Hi Jen" the way he always had for as long as I could remember. His voice was small too. Frail. He had been sick off and on for a couple of years. Smoking cigarettes and eating our wonderful Southern cooking had finally caught up to him. He had several surgeries over the past few years to clear out arteries and stents to open things up. He also had cancer and had been on dialysis for months. He was tired. I think we were all tired. Every time he went into the hospital, we treated each visit as our last; but now the time was really here. I was angry because aside from the possibility that another surgery or more dialysis might prolong his life, he was quitting. What kind of life was that though? My head was buzzing when I looked at my father and uncles. How can I watch these strong men all crumble at once? I was angry that Papa was lying in his own bed and not in a hospital somewhere getting "fixed up" the way he always had.

There was a stranger in the room. Who is this strange woman sitting in the corner just watching us? I realized she was a hospice nurse sent to guide him (and us) through the dying process. I hated her. I hated what she represented and I wanted her to leave. However, it is now with great admiration that I talk about this woman and what she did for Papa and my family. She monitored his comfort level. There were no I.V.'s, no respirators. She didn't bring anything in her bag to resuscitate him. She sat quietly in the corner and watched as we went through our grieving, only coming out of the shadow to give pain medication. She understood that it was a waiting game for Papa and it didn't involve her at all. Life was taking it's course. My dad is the oldest son. I think probably the favorite too. When Papa was ready he asked my dad to give him something that would put him into a deep sleep until his breath stopped. The hospice nurse took my dad and showed him what to do. In that moment, the two strongest men I know ended their relationship on this Earth together. My grandfather had helped bring my dad into this world, and my dad helped my grandfather leave. All of our holding on to him came down to that moment, when he was finally at peace.

My family practiced what is known as Passive Euthanasia. We did not take any measures to prolong my grandfather's life, and we did not do anything to cause his death either. We allowed him to finish out his life in his own room, with his family and with minimal pain. Aside from the pain of missing him, looking back it was a beautiful experience. Birth and death are the common bond that all humans share. The way different cultures handle the dying process varies depending on their beliefs. I often wonder how I would have felt if Papa would have been in horrible pain. I wonder if my family would have assisted him in proactively ending his life, known as Active Euthanasia, which would have sped up his death in order to end the suffering. While Americans do not legally practice Active Euthanasia (with the exception of only a few states), other countries do and it's a battle ethics about a person's choice over their bodies in life or death.

Religion and Euthanasia

I believe it would be foolish to assume that there is one specific belief system that is above the rest. Our wold is made up of many different cultural aspects; mainly religion. I take a "to each's own" opinion on the topic of religion. Regardless of what religion one choses to follow, it basically boils down to this: religion is not only a way for us to know how to live, it also gives us somewhat of a guideline on how we die because most religions believe in an after-life. How then do the different religions feel about the intentional taking of life?

The Christian faith seems to be predominately against euthanasia because it is God's choice as to when we die and not ours. Christian's maintain faith that the sick are not suffering as we suspect, and that God is comforting them until He takes them to heaven. In Ecclesiastes 8:8 it says, "No man has the power over the wind to contain it; so no one has power over the day of his death."