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Isn't euthanasia sometimes the only way to relieve excruciating pain?






Answer: Quite the contrary. Euthanasia activists exploit the natural fear people have of suffering and dying, and often imply that when cure is no longer likely, there are only two alternatives: euthanasia or unbearable pain.

For example, an official of Choice in Dying, a right-to-die organization, said refusing to permit euthanasia " would, in fact, be to abandon the patient to a horrifying death."

Such an irresponsible statement fails to note that virtually all pain can be eliminated and that -- in those rare cases where it can't be eliminated -- it can still be reduced significantly if proper treatment is provided.

It is a national and international scandal that so many people do not get adequate pain control. But killing is not the answer to that scandal. The solution is to mandate better education of health care professionals on these crucial issues, to expand access to health care, and to inform patients about their rights as consumers.

Everyone -- whether it be a person with a life-threatening illness or a chronic condition -- has the right to pain relief. With modern advances in pain control, no patient should ever be in excruciating pain. However, most doctors have never had a course in pain management so they're unaware of what to do.

If a patient who is under a doctor's care is in excruciating pain, there's definitely a need to find a different doctor. But that doctor should be one who will control the pain, not one who will kill the patient.

There are board certified specialists in pain management who will not only help alleviate physical pain but are skilled in providing necessary support to deal with emotional suffering and depression that often accompanies physical pain.

Since euthanasia and assisted suicide take place anyway, isn't it better to legalize them so they'll be practiced under careful guidelines and so that doctors will have to report these activities?

That sounds good but it doesn't work. Physicians who do not follow the " guidelines" will not report and, even when a physician does report information, there is no way to know if it is accurate or complete.

For example, the Oregon law requires the Oregon Health Division (OHD) to collect information and publish an annual statistical report about assisted-suicide deaths. (55) However, the law contains no penalties for health care providers who fail to report information to the OHD. Moreover, the OHD has no regulatory authority or resources to ensure submission of information to its office. (56)

Thus, all information contained in the OHD's official reports is that which has been provided by the physicians who prescribed the lethal drugs and only that which the physicians choose to provide.

The OHD even admitted that reporting physicians may have fabricated their versions of the circumstances surrounding the prescriptions written for patients. " For that matter, the entire account could have been a cock-and-bull story. We assume, however, that physicians were their usual careful and accurate selves" (57) when providing information.

Furthermore, even if every physician reported each case and did so accurately, there would be no way to determine whether the deaths were accompanied with problems and complications since the Oregon law does not require that a physician be present when the patient dies. According to the tenth annual report issued by OHD, physicians were present at only 22% of reported deaths during 2007. (58)

In the Netherlands, prior to enactment of the 2001 law, physicians were assured that they would not be prosecuted for euthanasia or assisted suicide as long as they followed guidelines and filed a report after the patient's death. However, official surveys of Dutch doctors, in which physicians were granted both immunity and anonymity, revealed that only 41% of euthanasia and assisted-suicide deaths were reported. (59)

Cases which failed to meet practice guidelines were most likely to go unreported. (60)

 


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