Hello !!! Welcome to Magnificat’s Corner.
Nice to meet you.
Call me Magnificat, an African and a Nigerian that loves medicine and married a wife who happened to be a medical practitioner who have practised in the US. Haven lived with her for over 10 years; I have fallen in love with talking about some aspects of medical practices which aren’t being spoken about enough. I also have a dad who has battled some age associated medical conditions like memory loss, loss of sight, urinary incontinence; and haven lived in environment where “mercy killing” is being practiced spurs my curiosity; is there benefits to it?
LET’S EXPLORE THE POSITION OF THE MEDICAL WORLD ON EUTHANASIA!!!
For those who’ve never come across the word Euthanasia, it is literally called “Mercy Killing”!. I know you would be wondering why killing someone out of mercy. In some developed countries mercy killing is being practiced legally fortunately or unfortunately as the case may be. In countries like USA, Canada and Australia, euthanasia is being practiced as a sort of medical treatment especially for people with end stage diseases like cancers, progressive dementia, Alzheimer disease and lots more. In such cases the medical team managing the patient would have discussed the stage of the disease holistically with the patient and his/her family and reach an agreement to end the patient’s life medically by either withdrawing treatment or injecting them with lethal substances with the aim of ending their lives. This is seen as a way of alleviating pain and misery associated with the ill health.
WOW!!! I KNOW IT MUST HAVE SOUNDED WEIRD TO YOU, BUT IT IS REAL!!
Now, what does Christianity think about euthanasia?
For Christians, the teaching is that “thou shall not kill”, no matter the circumstance. That means that the church still frowns at taking lives either as a therapeutic measure or not. However, is it then good to allow an individual go through the pain and misery associated with some chronic diseases like end stage cancers, one might ask? No one really prays for ill health, but there comes a time when the patients are there between the devil and the red sea, and like in every other case choosing a lesser demon is always a better option. So, to these patients and their families, it is better to end it all than to be alive and suffer excruciatingly. Like I said earlier euthanasia is being practiced conservatively in some developed countries because even in these countries the society still frowns at it. It is always in extreme cases where there is no hope of recovery or hope of alternative method of ameliorating pain and suffering that this becomes an option. African continent still frowns at it and as such I haven’t heard of any African country where it is legally practiced. Hopefully in the near future some African countries will adopt it as a therapeutic measure for diseases.
Euthanasia, otherwise known as “mercy killing” could be viewed as evil or a therapeutic measure depending on the context and region where it is being practiced. It is one of the ways of alleviating the sufferings and misery associated with some irreversible disease conditions such as end stage cancers where patients and relatives view death as a means to end of misery.
TILL I SEE YOU AGAIN, IT IS BYE FOR NOW.
