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letra de a false mercy- martin gunther - devin o'connor

euthanasia is humane and merciful as an idea. it might be inhumane and dangerous as a practice. a progressive society should limit its power over human beings instead of expanding it. strangely enough, many people who denounce capital punishment are in favor of euthanasia

legalizing euthanasia would be a disservice to the medical profession in that it would expand the power and responsibility of physicians, which are already almost unbearably great. the legal conditions proposed — consent of the patient or his family, decision by a state commission — would create psychological and technical situations beyond human endurance

millions of people today live a hopeless and painful, even a socially useless, life without the benefit of an incurable disease. should they be permitted to be candidates for euthanasia? suffering is more easily accepted by the patient who really has a painful disease than by the neurotic person who produces his misery and pain by emotional processes. even the incapacitated, agonized patient, in despair most of the time, may still get some joy from existence. his mood will change between longing for death and fear of death. who would want to decide what should be done on such unsafe ground?

last summer in germany i witnessed a number of so-called euthanasia trials. the nazis and their medical hangmen had murdered many thousands of mental patients, epileptics, feeble-minded, physically handicapped, “asocial” persons. of course these crimes had no resemblance to the euthanasia some people want legalized. there was no consent, no indication — in most cases — of unbearable suffering. however, the m-ss murder was justified as “euthanasia,” and one cannot help being deeply disturbed by the attitude of apparently honest physicians toward the orders of a perverted government and by the potential dangers of euthanasia as an instrument of public health

“hopeless” or “incurable” disease is an outmoded medical concept. we have seen in our lifetime a great number of incurable diseases become curable. cancer may be curable the day after our application for euthanasia is signed

it is also possible that undue influence would be exercised by the patient’s family. suffering may seem more unbearable to the sensitive onlooker than to the sufferer himself. chronic disease is always a social catastrophe whether death is imminent or not. families are disrupted; their economic security is destroyed. but it is a sinister thought that economic considerations might influence the decision as to life or death. death; in our society, has already too much taken on the character of an important financial transaction; a physician must frequently deal with patients who insist that they can afford death because of their insurance provisions, but not life with an incapacitating incurable disease. it seems clear to me that a public health-insurance system should lessen the risk and the tragedy of chronic disease, but euthanasia is not a tolerable substitute for social and medical -ssistance

the weapons of medicine for fighting pain and alleviating unbearable suffering have increased beyond any expectation. there is, indeed, no place for unbearable pain in modern medicine. if people die in torment it is because qualified medical or nursing care is unavailable. i have often been appalled by the undignified and careless way in which people are forced to die. help in making birth easier is today a matter of routine, and almost no child comes into the world without expert -ssistance. dying is often very difficult. it seems to me there ought to be well-trained death helpers among doctors and nurses just as there are birth helpers. but what is needed is wise guidance in the tremendous human experience of death, not the fulfillment of a more or less self-imposed death sentence by euthanasia

much can be done to integrate death into everybody’s existence, to make our departure from human society as natural an event as our entrance. but i greatly doubt that legalized euthanasia is the best means. as a physician, i feel i would have to reject the power and responsibility of the ultimate decision

- devin oconnor

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