Euthanasia

“I'm not afraid of being dead. I'm just afraid of what you might have to go through to get there.” ― Pamela Bone

The country woke up to the word Euthanasia after Aruna Shanbhag’s death at the KEM Hospital in Mumbai. A nurse by profession, Aruna who worked for the KEM Hospital was in a vegetative state for 42 years  on a ventilator support. She was brain dead, yet breathed with the help of a machine and  the plea for her death as right to die was rejected. Euthanasia  can be defined as the administration of a legal drug by a physician as an act of mercy at the patient's request. 

The recent debate on Times News on Euthanasia held several Indians glued to the talk show. The talk spoke of several cases where the patient could not commit a suicide, but needed medical assistance as a means of deliverance from the pathetic state. Some even said that for an old person who has lived a meager life throughout, this state was the richest one in his lifetime as it involved more than forty percent of his lifetime earnings. A few felt that people were deliberately forced onto ventilators by the hospitals in a bid to make money.  The talk shows involved a lady judge whose understanding for Euthanasia was known, as she had witnessed her husband in the same pathetic state as Aruna Shanbhag’s, a year back. She said that in the initial stage she wanted her husband to be kept alive as long as the hospital authorities could, as she felt he would revive. When she had to declare Euthanasia for a similar case in the court, she refused it as her thoughts and perception of Euthanasia for the victim was guided by what she felt for her husband. Within a week she understood the outcomes, she now understood that Euthanasia prevented the terminally ill and brain dead person from pain and trauma.  The relatives normally deny euthanasia as they do not wish to burn in the guilt of not having taken care of the near and dear.

We have witnessed a few such cases, but one smiling face haunts me. It was just a year after we moved to Pune. The family was a small one with a husband, wife and their ten year old daughter. There was no dearth of money for the man was a well placed government official, the wife worked as a teacher in a local school. Together they placed their loving daughter in one the best schools in the nearby locality. We met them partying and enjoying their evening well,  in the course of time, we came to know about the man’s  disease related to a metabolic disorder, yet he took good care and was healthy. The next year we came to know that he was unwell and was admitted in the hospital,  a hard core optimist that he was, helped him recover soon,yet a sudden twist took him back to a worse state, now his life  was supported with the help of a ventilator. Every day we hoped he would come back to normalcy, but for several days he was struggling to live. Sometimes he would respond and talk to friends and family, but a time came when he never responded for several days. The young wife was in a dilemma,  the doctors had informed her to choose a day to remove the ventilator support, and declare the man dead. Being young it required great courage on the lady’s part where she had to choose spending money on a living corpse or on her growing daughter. After fifteen days a decision was taken, she agreed to free her husband from the agony.  Initially the lady was inconsolable.  The lady gradually came out of the pain, got her husband’s job on compassionate grounds and life resumed. The lady had known a few doctors who were considerate and sensitive, and could assist her take the right decision before she lost all her money and her dear husband.  

There are several other cases  like the lady’s case where people hit upon difficulties to opt for  euthanasia due to the procedure, and the involvement of law making the lives of the affected people worse than the deceased. Euthanasia should have been a right for Aruna Shanbhag.  The animals understand euthanasia better than human beings. I happened to see a cat that had given birth to her litter pick the frailest, lame one and gobble it. It was terrifying and a dreadful deed to me then. My mother explained that the cat knew that the kitten would not survive, and so it resolved to kill it rather than let the kitten die a painful death. Perhaps Euthanasia is still a difficult choice  for  the doctors as they are trained to confer life rather than seize life.

It takes heroic charity and humility to let others sustain us when we are absolutely incapable of sustaining ourselves. Thomas Merton