Euthanasia
must remain illegal because legalizing it could lead to its abuse.
Let's not forget that terminally ill patients are very needy and
very vulnerable and rely on doctors and family members for advice
and care. This dependency puts them at the risk of being easily
manipulated by family members and the medical community whose interests
might be better served if the patient were to die. Family members
might choose to free themselves from the burden of caring for a
terminally ill patient by quickly agreeing to the patient's request
to die. Family members are not the only ones who could abuse euthanasia.
The medical community could also abuse it by using it to solve problems
to which they see no other solution. This is what happened in England
recently when hospital administrators were facing tight funding
and increased demand for hospital beds. To solve these problems,
they required doctors and nurses to limit the care they gave patients
whose life they considered worthless or whose chances of recovery
were doubtful. They were instructed to give fatal doses of pain
killers, withhold food or treatment, and refuse to resuscitate these
patients without their or their family's consent. For
these reasons, the decision to end life should be made by the patient
alone.
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