The Last Trumpet

By- Pamarty Venkataramana 

 

Euthanasia is a dilemma modern societies have been posed with ever since advent of information technology and mushrooming of media outlets alongside the growing incidence of medical negligence cases – a global phenomenon.

 

What implications does the latest ‘assisted dying’ permission granted in the King’s land hold for we,the people of India who often exhibit a tendency to meekly follow those overseas laws and practices? 

 

Is it wrong to snatch away a life of a being who still has time to breathe in this lifetime albeit a painfully unbearable one? 

 

Is it right to let a suffering being to exercise a perceived right to not be living any more since the right to not to live is inherent in the right to life and being alive?

 

Under what circumstances has a supposedly enlightened society ,in contemporary times declared that suicide or the attempt to commit suicide itself is no more a criminal offence such as murder or taking away another being’s life?

 

Mercy-killing reflects a recognition of the gravity of painful existence and its impact on near and dear ones. As such,it seeks to relieve the suffering of both the affected or afflicted as also of other people witnessing,bearing or undergoing the effects of any such suffering person.

 

Forms of Euthanasia or mercy-killing can be of myriad forms,beginning from an injection administered in a state of deep sleep to pulling off the ventilator cord,so to speak. While it is an inevitable escape from unspeakable painful (and often vegetated existence) and the entailing costs of medicare,the act of assisted killing raises issues beyond morality and concern for compassionate existence (or,the termination of such a life of intolerable pain). Which are these?

 

For one,the misuse or abuse of such an empowering law. Who is authorised to decide the stage of assisted dying?

 

Parents in case of minors,spouse in a wedlock,medical experts unrelated to the patient or will it suffice a judicial officer’s attestation or police verification as is a rotinue procedure? The lower rungs are incapable of assessment whilst higher rungs are busy with matters much more comprehensible to them.

 

In the result, there is every danger of a wicked,evil or demented individual or body of individuals joining hands to conspire to kill a wealthy person or for nefarious reasons, other than wealth. 

 

Instances galore of gangsters fomenting discord and indulging in defamatory slanderous talks through gullible or as evil an individual or gang of rogues behind the back of an unsuspecting person. Such a sinful coterie may even go to the extent of threatening,forcing and compelling a helpless person into signing such a so-called consent form for assisted death. There can be no end at all.

 

Be that as it may, one who advocates assisted death must be one who has undergone pain and suffering either personally or from very close quarters in order to be eligible for any such certification or attestation of a plea for such termination of life for explicable medical reasons and upon moral grounds.

 

The last trumpet should not reflect a lost soul. Rather,it must epitomize human compassion towards unending suffering. The abyss of death ought to herald a new beginning. Life after death. Rebirth. No more remorse. Regardless of religious beliefs and societal mores, Law should rise above dilemmas and dialogues with healthy folks about the eternal conundrum-‘ to or not to help a suffering individual die’.

 

Physical suffering be on one plane while psychological pain is an altogether different dimension of existence – hovering between vacuum of mind and overcrowding of haunting,vile thoughts. 

 

The last trumpet. There can be no last word on its advisability. Or so it always seems.