A sweet death: suicide assisted by euthanasia
Life is undoubtedly the right of every human being, without the right to life would not make sense that other rights exist, but what happens if the individual who currently lives, goes through suffering or pain due to some disease, in thesecases there is a procedure that is prohibited in some countries but has a purpose that is to end the life of a person so that it does not suffer anymore.
The right to life means, therefore, the right not to be murdered. Constitutes the formal prohibition of intentionally causing death to a person. For children, this right implies not only that countries do not apply the death penalty about those who commit crimes, but also effectively protect their lives to fight and condemn infanticide acts.
Euthanasia or also known as sweet death from the Greek words "eu" which means good and "Thanatos" that means death, that is a good death.
Euthanasia is the voluntary interruption of life, accelerating the death of a patient and is ethically a bad practice seen by society, but is intended to prevent the patient from suffering and feeling pain if he is going through any terminal disease. Euthanasia is associated with death without suffering.
Always, throughout history, the death of the subject produced by the subject and that carried out by third parties, through written norms or not, being a reflection of the prevailing conceptions, has been regulated voluntarilyIn each era, they were religious, scientific philosophical or any other order.
It can be seen that euthanasia has been present since ancient times where it has occurred in different ways, under strict norms which marked the process so that euthanasia can be carried out, also involving the beliefs of the past.
These practices were very common in the primitive villages where euthanasia occurred for various reasons, but sometimes emphasis where people practiced it because their quality of life was no longer the same, so in cases they occurred when the elders already arrivedAt old age or were going through some disease, as well as in cases when women committed suicide because their husbands died, or the death of the vassals for the death of their patterns.
One of the most common practices of euthanasia was in ancient Japan, adopting a position where the honor and respect of a soldier influenced their lives, or also influenced the conquest of one clan towards another.
The Seppuku, Harakiri, Harakiri or Harakiri (腹切 or 腹切り is the Japanese suicide ritual for unraveling. The Seppuku was part of the Bushidō, the ethical code of the samurais, and was carried out voluntarily to die with honor instead of falling into the hands of the enemy and being tortured, or as a form of capital punishment for those who had committed seriousoffenses or dishonor. (Wikipedia, 2019)
Here it can be seen that the Seppuku existed which was a way to take his life to avoid being tortured in case of a war and be captured by the enemy, although it consisted of a cut in the belly in which he would be considered painful, it was alwaysAssisted by a witness which to prevent the body from being dishonorable and the samurai suffered, cut off the head instantly and the pain will be little.
Euthanasia was also practiced in ancient Greece and Rome, where the hemlock would be used to accelerate the death process and that this is painless and fast.
The best known case of euthanasia in ancient Greece was the death of Socrates, which by opposing the beliefs of the ancestral gods would be condemned to death, for teaching the right thing and would die in drinking the hem.
‘Socrates was sentenced to death, his friends prepared a escape plan, but he preferred to comply with the law and died for it. He spent his last days of life with his friends and followers. Shortly before complying with his sentence, he bathed, to avoid that women had to wash their body. Once clean he drank the poison, and when he felt his legs already heavy, he died he died on his back, without complaining or showing any suffering, but on the contrary he was the most optimistic person who was in that place since all other peopleHe suffered to knowing that Socrates was going to die, with this he aroused the admiration of those around him ‘.
Just as there was a part that supported euthanasia and defended it as a way to finish suffering in a quick and painless way, it also had its detractors that labeled it from an immoral procedure, an example of those detractors was Hippocrates which wasIt was based that as a principle was the health of the person and the true well -being of the patient, but he also recognized that this norm could be easily violated since doctors not only have the power to cure but also to kill.
Eh from here where the hypocratic oath will leave that medical students swore when entering the medical career.
“I will pay my medical teacher the same respect as to the authors of my days, I will leave with them my fortune and help them if they need it;I will treat his children as my brothers and if they want to learn science, I will teach it selflessly and without any kind of reward.
I will instruct with precepts, oral lessons and other teaching modes to my children, those of my teacher and the disciples who join me under the agreement and oath determined by the medical law, and no one else.
I will establish the regime of the sick in the way that is most helpful according to my faculties and to understand, avoiding all evil and all injustice. I will not access claims to seek the administration of poisons, abortive pessians or suggest anyone like that."
There are different way for euthanasia, voluntary suicide and assisted suicide, and there are countries in which euthanasia is as a right but the procedure varies in each.
From ancient times to the present the way to perform euthanasia has varied and has changed with the passing of time and technological advances. In the past it was intended to perform euthanasia through morphine and was considered the sedative terminal since life ended with a strong dose but in the end it is painless.
Different methods are currently used such as injections, barbiturates, diazepam that is common in cases of euthanasia and morphine fits in one of the most used. (Ministry of Health of Colombia, 2015)
As euthanasia is cited below: it is any act or omission whose responsibility lies in medical personnel or individuals close to the patient, and that causes the immediate death of this in order to avoid unbearable sufferings or the artificial prolongation of his life. It is initially highlighted two relevant data: so that euthanasia is considered as such, the patient must necessarily suffer a terminal or incurable disease, and, secondly, the health personnel must expressly count on the consent of the patient.
With this we can imply that euthanasia is a voluntary process, which is the desire of the individual who is in mental capacities, has knowledge about the subject, and is aware of the process to which it will be submitted knowing that it is a process with whichwill accelerate the process of his death.
Euthanasia will be applied when the patient suffers from an incurable disease or that causes a lotTypes of euthanasia.
Direct and active euthanasia is the cause of painless death at the request of the affected when he is a victim of terminal, progressive diseases that reduce the individual’s ability and are incurable.
Indirect euthanasia has as a priority not to end life but its function is to relieve suffering, in which therapeutic procedures are used whose results would end up killing the individual in a painless way. An example of this case is the overdose of morphine which in high amounts is not harmful but if it is recurring it would end someone’s life.
During the euthanasia procedure, it must be ensured that used medications are short -term and rapid effect so that the patient’s death is fast and painless, using simple but lethal application medications.
In conclusion we can say that the euthanasia process despite having verifiable data that it relieves the pain of patients through a rapid and painless death will always have detractors who will rely on ethics and morals in which thelife must be respected and nobody or anything can decide to finish their life.
“The right to life and the way of understanding this right is the central nucleus of this debate. The controversy arises in the divergence of opinions on whether or not the right to life includes the possibility of having it, to the point of being able to end life.
Some think that we all have the duty to conserve our life, based on the fact that every person has a commitment to respect himself, derived from the fact that he has not done to himself, nor has he given the value and dignity he possesses. It is evident that opinions such as these are determined by the religious beliefs of those who sustain them, which allow to find a valuable sense of death, pain and suffering."
This implies that euthanasia will always be a controversial procedure which will imply several factors before finally being able to occur, first that only some countries allow suicide by will and assisted suicide, and that some have as restrictionsthat doctors cannot participate in the act if it would not be considered a crime as it is in Holland, and that the patient should look for their own means to end their lives.
Even with the oath of Hippocrates and the International Code of Medical Ethics, in medicine there is a process of decisions in the life of a person, as is the case of when a person is on the verge of life and death. It is currently common for doctors to suggest the interruption of medical procedures even if this has the consequence of the patient’s death, this is what is known as passive death.
This is carried out with the permission of the patient’s relatives, who are going to decide for him in some critic case of medical processes, where they can choose to do a high risk operation with the probability of death or not do it. In these cases the decision of the relatives has more weight than the decision of the same patient.
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