Euthanasia: What’s in a name?

The word euthanasia is Greek and is said to mean easy death. I should imagine that an easy death is the opposite of a difficult death. So, it begs the question; what is an easy death?               

                             Apparently an easy death involves…

• Freedom from suffering, agony and unnecessary pain.
• At peace with God or personal belief system
• Presence of family and loved ones
• Being mentally aware
• Physically continent
• Having one’s treatment choices followed
• Having one’s finances in order
• Experiencing a feeling that life was meaningful
• Being able to resolve any outstanding conflicts
• Being able to say goodbye to everyone we would like to
• Die at home preferably whilst sleeping and dreaming of beautiful things

This being so an easy death is a good death. The authors of “The future of health and care of older people: the best is yet to come” (Age Concern) list 12 principles of what constitutes a good death. These are as follows…

1. To know when death is coming, and to understand what can be expected
2. To be able to retain control of what happens
3. To be afforded dignity and privacy
4. To have control over pain relief and other symptom control
5. To have choice and control over where death occurs (at home or elsewhere)
6. To have access to information and expertise of whatever kind is necessary
7. To have access to any spiritual or emotional support required
8. To have access to hospice care in any location, not only in hospital
9. To have control over who is present and who shares the end
10. To be able to issue advance directives which ensure wishes are respected
11. To have time to say goodbye, and control over other aspects of timing.
12. To be able to leave when it is time to go, and not to have life prolonged pointlessly.

In contrast to this, the Journal of the American Medical Association (November 15, 2000) found that there is no one definition of a good death; (according to them) “quality end-of-life care is a dynamic process that is negotiated and renegotiated among patients, families, and health care professionals.”  I suspect that much of this negotiation process will be money-motivated.

Mr Beadle, 50, told The Mirror how supplied an unnamed friend, suffering from motor neurone disease, with a the recipe for a cocktail of drugs to help him end his life.

The man, a 57-year-old salesman, later killed himself in a hotel room.

Helping someone kill themselves is a criminal offence under the Suicide Act 1961, and can carry a jail term of up to 14 years.

But the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, which is campaigning for a change in the law, is supporting the presenter's position.

'Very sympathetic'

"We are very sympathetic towards him. This underlines the need for a change and a need for the law to recognise that people like Jeremy Beadle's friend should have the option to end their lives peacefully," said campaigns manager Graham Nickson.

Mr Nickson added the society frequently heard from people with painful and terminal conditions like motor neurone disease who could not face living with their illness.

"Perversely, even though advances in medical technology mean people can live for longer, many simply don't want to prolong their suffering and die badly."

The Mirror breaks the story

Proud to have helped friend

Mr Beadle told the newspaper he was proud he had helped his friend - whom he had known since his 20s - to end his suffering.

They arranged to do it at a secret meeting in a hotel room.

He said: "He didn't want a failed suicide attempt. If he was going to go through with it, he was needed to do it properly. Trying to talk him out of it wouldn't have been helpful.

"I feel privileged to have been his friend and proud that I was able to assist his dignified exit. I was his sole confidante and I admired his courage.

Friendship more important than law

"I take full responsibility for what may be considered, 'assisting a suicide'. When it comes down to a question of friendship or the law, humanity and friendship are more important."

Beadle added: "This may seem a strange way to value a friendship, but I am proud of what I did. My friend died from a cocktail of drugs but I just provided him with information.

"The decision and supply was entirely down to him. I didn't actually purchase, obtain or deliver anything other than knowledge."

The case for Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

We often use these two nouns (euthanasia and assisted suicide) interchangeably as if they are one and the same – but they are not the same. They are very different and, in law they are treated very differently too.

Definitions: Euthanasia.

Paradoxically, euthanasia is said to be the deliberate killing of a person for the benefit of that person.

Very often we think of euthanasia in terms of it being a 'mercy killing', linking it with someone who is terminally ill and suffering prolonged unbearable pain.

This is where things get silly...

In most cases euthanasia is carried out because the person who dies asks for it, but there are cases called euthanasia where a person can't make such a request ... (?)

A person who undergoes euthanasia is usually terminally ill, but there are other situations in which some people want euthanasia. As previously noted, most of us believe that unbearable pain is the main reason people seek euthanasia: But some surveys in the USA and the Netherlands showed that less than a third of requests for euthanasia were because of severe pain.

Euthanasia can be carried out either by doing something, such as giving a lethal injection, or by not to do something necessary to keep the person alive (for example failing to keep their feeding tube going).

However, it is not classed as euthanasia if a patient dies as a result of refusing extraordinary or burdensome medical treatment. Nor is it classed as euthanasia to give a drug in order to reduce pain, even though the drug causes the patient to die sooner. This is because the doctor's intention was to relieve the pain, not to kill the patient.

Those who would seek euthanasia

Terminally ill people can have their quality of life severely damaged by physical conditions such as incontinence, nausea and vomiting, breathlessness, paralysis, difficulty in swallowing...

Psychological factors that cause people to think of euthanasia include depression, fear of loss of control or of dignity, feeling a burden, or dislike of being dependent.

Assisted Suicide

Assisted suicide has been defined as intentionally, knowingly and directly providing the means of death to another person so that the person can use that means to commit suicide (e.g., providing a prescription for a lethal dose of drugs).