Assisted Suicide

Euthanasia

All the humans on earth must die at some point of their lives. Death can knock at our doors at any moment, at any second, and it can come in a thousand different ways. Some people die suddenly, for example from a heart attack, some lose their lives during an accident, and in some other cases, death just comes naturally. But some other die in terrible ways, due to very serious conditions or diseases that will make them suffer everyday all day, for months or years! Until death come more like a relief than a true punishment. Due to this last example, some people consider euthanasia as an option. Euthanasia refers to the termination of a very sick person's life in order to relieve them of their suffering. 

A person who desires euthanasia usually has an incurable condition. And in some cases it is requested by the sick person, and in cases where the patient is unconscious or some similar situation, the request is made by their relatives.  The decision of practicing euthanasia is not easy, but for me, it is an act of compassion towards the patient, but many others differ with my reasoning.

Some people believe that euthanasia is just another way of

saying murder, that they are equal terms, but from my point of view, there is a world between one term and the other. To explain this better, let’s review the first legal case of Euthanasia in Colombia, the case of Jose Ovidio Gonzales. This case took place in 2015, Jose Ovidio, the father of the famous caricaturist “El Matador”, was diagnosed with a cancer in his mouth, that made him lose 33 Kilos, made him lose all his teeth, forced him to only consume liquids and made him faint on regular basis, he fought against this terrible cancer for 5 horrible years, until he could not bear the pain any longer, so he requested the euthanasia. At first his request was denied because it was against God. Then he made an action to receive the procedure, and when everything was ready, they called him 15 minutes before the intervention to tell him that one of the doctors refused to do it.

 After a long time of fighting, finally, the euthanasia. This just saved Don Ovidio from more year of pain and suffering that at the end, would result in the same end, death. With the difference that here, Don Ovidio could chose to die with dignity.

One of the most popular points against euthanasia is that proposed by the Church, based on God’s word. The church exposes that pain is a part of life, and that it must be supported until the day comes. Here comes into discussion two different points, the first one is that not all the people is a follower of this institution, for consequence, this thinking should never be imposed. And the second one is that saying that pain must be supported, for me, is disregarding the pain of the one suffering. There are pains so terrible, so unbearable, that we cannot talk about them until we feel them, so I don´t believe that anyone has the moral right of telling anyone to just stand it.

To conclude, from my perspective, euthanasia should be a right. Everyone should have the right of choosing their own definition of dying with dignity. Following this idea, the same way someone can decide to practice it, someone can decide not do it, but no one should have the right to tell a dying person that they don’t have that option. Nowadays, the personal opinion of the ones involved in this process interferes with the capability of the Colombian government to provide this right to its citizens, for example, in the case of Don Ovidio. After this, it seems to me that a change in everyone’s way of thinking is required, so that everyone can have access to this right, to feel empathy for the ones that take this decision that is never easy.

 By Camila Orozco, Step 10