Euthanasia could ‘become the normal way to die’

By Deborah Gyapong

Canadian Catholic News

OTTAWA (CCN) — Margaret Somerville warned a group of doctors May 1 that euthanasia would become the normal way to die if it is legalized.
One need only look at what has happened since abortion was decriminalized, she said. It was supposed to remain a rare exception. In Europe today one in three pregnancies ends in abortion, while in Canada, the numbers are only slightly better.

The aging of the population and increasingly scarce health care resources would speed up normalization, the director of McGill University’s Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law told the 120 doctors, medical students and other health professionals attending the annual conference of the Canadian Federation of Catholic Physicians’ Societies (CFCPS).

If euthanasia is legalized, there will be an “unstoppable expansion” of justifications for it. In the Netherlands, 30 years ago, one had to be terminally ill, competent, exhaust all legitimate treatment options and repeatedly request euthanasia.

“Now not one of those requirements apply,” she said. Parents of handicapped newborns can opt for a lethal injection up to a month after birth and people as young as 16 can opt for euthanasia, giving pain and suffering as a reason.

Studies show that most people request euthanasia out of intense pre-mortem loneliness, social isolation and a fear of being a burden on others, she said.

The argument that respect for the right to autonomy and self-determination means the state has no right to prevent competent adults from dying at the time of their choosing really means the state no longer requires a justification for euthanasia, she said.

While many see euthanasia as a solution to pain and suffering, Somerville said efforts have to be made to stop the pain and suffering first “and then ask them if they agree with euthanasia.”

She noted there is a sudden upsurge in a desire for euthanasia when terminal illness, old age and dying are nothing new, such as the ethical problems posed by new reproductive technologies.

Dying alone or unloved is a universal human fear, she said. One factor in the upsurge is the unprecedented social change that has led to the loss of intact, extended families in the western world. This has led to intense pre-mortem loneliness.

Arguments against euthanasia are complex and far more difficult to make, she said, warning arguments with a religious basis will be dismissed.

“Today, the argument for euthanasia is the easiest to make,” she said, noting they all concern the autonomous individual. “It’s my right, my body. The individual has the right to choose death.”

The arguments against euthanasia concern its effects on institutions, such as the health care system, on hospitals, doctors and on society as a whole, she said.

“Can you imagine teaching medical students to kill?” she asked.

She recalled a talk she gave in Australia after the Northern Territory legalized euthanasia for a several-month period. She spoke of the terrible damage euthanasia would do to the medical profession if doctors were allowed to kill. She suggested perhaps a special group of lawyers could be trained to administer the lethal injections instead of doctors or other health professionals.

“You can’t have lawyers killing people!” was the response, she said, because the scenario took the “medical cloak” off euthanasia and exposed it as the deliberate taking of a human life.

People often argue that we are merciful to dogs by euthanizing them, so why shouldn’t we do the same for human beings, she said. “We’re not dogs!”

Somerville said one of the biggest challenges is to argue there is something special about human beings without using religious reasons.
Traditional religion used to serve as a way of putting talk of death into a context of eternity, she said, because the mystery of death induces terror.
“Now the death talk has spilled out into society,” she said. Vast exposure to death on television has also desensitized us, she said, and euthanasia is seen as a way of reducing suffering.

“It is very difficult to justify suffering without some form of religious argument,” she said.

Another way of managing the terror of death is to take control. “Euthanasia is a terror control mechanism.”