i already forget how i used to feel about you

as i was watching boston legal, i was reminded of the topic of euthanasia. As we all know, euthanasia is illegal and generally frowned upon. Of course there are also some of us who are in favour of euthanasia, or suicide for that matter, seeing it as a personal right to one's life.


I'm not exactly sure where I stand. On one hand, I've been brought up to believe that euthanasia/suicide is a cowardice act, just mere escaping. Life is precious and ought to be cherished no matter what, down to the very last second. However, what is one to do if life no longer bears any hope or joy? When faced with a terminal disease and given a certain number of days left to live, should one prolong one's suffering? Would it be more humane, more merciful to simply pull the plug and shorten a person's misery?


When I visited SAGE a while back, I was presented with reports of rising suicide rates among the elderly because they were sick, depressed and generally felt unwanted. My friend then shared with me his experience about his grandfather. His grandfather was the closest person to him in the world. He comes from a broken family and his parents are never home because they were always away on work. He was brought up by his grandfather. As his grandfather lay dying in the hospital bed, the doctor approached his family and told him that his grandfather could only last another week at best. And the doctor suggested euthanasia to put him out of the misery. And his family agreed to it. Although it pained my friend beyond he could bear to describe, he was glad his family agreed to euthanasia.


A particular episode of The Practise explored such a topic. There was something mentioned in the show that struck me. Even as a dying old lady begged to be killed, her granddaughter knew deep down that she did not really want to die. That at the point between life and death, her grandmother would cling onto life if only she could, for another day, another hour or just another second.


But what if you are the one sick on the bed? Would you rather your family pull the plug? Say you suffer from a terminal illness, there is no cure. All that separates you from life and death is a machine that is probably draining your family of its financial resources. What should you do? Is there really a point in sustaining life in this case?


Supported only by "an iron lung", is it life? What is the point? Surely life isn't just about having a heartbeat or breath. There must be something more about life. Is it not about the intrinsic possibilities that life brings? In that case, what is REALLY wrong about putting an end to life?


Of course there is the converse argument. There is a limit to every life. Just because we only have a restricted number of days left doesn't give us the right to go around killing ourselves. While we don't need a reason to live, we need a reason to die. Surely that must be right, or people would just be killing themselves everyday. Most people don't know the exact purpose of our lives. Maybe life is a journey, in search of that very goal. Rather than kill ourselves because we can't find something to live for, shouldn't the right way be to live to find that something?


Why do we condone putting an animal to sleep but not euthanasia? Isn't putting an animal to sleep a form of euthanasia? Maybe because we see life of a human being more precious than that of an animal. But why do we say that putting an animal to sleep is humane and yet shun euthanasia? There must be some intrinsic difference between an animal and a human that explains the difference in value. hmmmm food for thought.