Following last night's episode of QandA on ABC1, the question was asked about whether there should be a robust debate about euthanasia. Some panelists made the commment that religion should be kept out of it (which I think amounts to a deception in logic), and that the debate should be framed in terms of logic.
In framing the question of euthanasia, the first question is to do with wether or not the person is "compos mentis". Compos Mentis is a good Latin phrase which at common law means having command of one's mind.
I would like for someone to first establish a definitve and authorative test of whether someone contemplating being euthanased actually is or even can be compos mentis. Generally if a person is contemplating suicide then they're hardly in a state to be making permanent decisions. There have been cases at law where a will has been held to be invalid because the person was not in a fit state of mind to write it; I think that this situation is rather similar.
Also, if someone wishes to be euthanaised then how exactly is this different to a state of duress? Duress is undue pressure to perform an act to which someone would not normally do. Someone either contemplating suicide or wishing to be euthanaised is considering something which clearly is not "normal".
The word euthanasia itself derives from two Greek roots. "Eu" which is "good" and "thanatos" which is "death". Can anyone honestly provide proof that there is such a thing as a "good death"?
Since death itself is not only the last journey one can undertake, it's also a journey once it has been undertaken, that nobody reports back from. Personally given the basic state that everyone has a basic survival instinct, I fail too see how that journey can actually be "good". Simple Common Sense let alone any Christian values I might be informed by, suggests that all death is bad. The thing is that I've never heard anyone actually disprove this (because presumably they can't), so in the interim my standpoint is immutable.
Secondly I question whether or not a so-called "Right to Die" can even be held to exist in the first place.
At Common Law a right is either a legal, social or ethical principle of freedom and or entitlement. Currently in no State or Territory in Australia is there an entitlement to terminate one's own life.
Also, how can one be said to extend or enhance one's freedom by extinguishing it entirely?
In NSW murder is a defined crime under section 18 of the Crimes Act 1900. Section 31A of the Crimes Act 1900 was abrogated which does in fact strike off suicide as a crime, but just because it's a struck off crime doesn't infer an entitlement at law. A tort at Common Law requires no legislation to exist, it might not be charged but it doesn't remove it.*
Can you really make the distinction between both a person as a subject and the owner of their own body at law? If you actually do then does that mean to say that a person's body is their own property? Euthanasia then becomes a property rights issue; if so, is someone's life their property to destroy?
Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that: "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." Since the Article defends the right to liberty and security of person, does that include the defence against one's self?
Also, Article 6 of the UDHR says: "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.". I argue that death generally is degrading and certainly inhuman. Again, since no-one comes back from the journey then there is no-one who can disprove this; again in the interim my standpoint is immutable.
Simple common sense tells me that death is bad. Christian doctrine informs me that it isn't the way the world was intended to be. I understand and can sympathise that there are people close to death who are in tremendous pain and might wish to die but because no-one can guarantee that the experience of death itself isn't worse, then it's a gamble where the odds are not known. Legal policy should not be written based on unknown gambles.
There is certainly a role for Palliative Care and every person I've ever met in such a role at least in my experience, does their level best to care for people. If the highest and best standard is the care of other people, then I fail to see how terminating someone's life even if they request it achieves this.
*Common Law in this respect agrees exactly with Romans 5:13
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