The meaning of Euthanasia in the dictionary goes like this –

“The painless killing of a person or animal suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma:”

I also wrote about the 3 types of death in my article - https://www.mayoan.com/post/43-3-types-of-deaths .

Looks like I missed one more type here – Group assisted suicide or “mercy killing”! I mention the word “group” here because lot of Governments are contemplating on enacting a legislation to support this practice.

I DO NOT support this practice for the below reasons:

1.      I believe that “the law of karma” is steadfast, relentless, accurate, unwavering, unyielding force majeure. At the end of balancing, the life force is withdrawn to prepare the soul for the next journey. In such a circumstance, especially when we have well-developed health care practices, it is cruel to induce a “terminally ill” person even by a simple suggestion (say by enacting a legislation or debate about it), that says that death will be a better outcome for him/her.

In my opinion, practices like suicide or euthanasia, does not end the "suffering" of a soul. Instead the balance of the "suffering" phase, simply gets transferred to the next birth too.

2.      I strongly believe that if the “divine force” wills, any patient can recover. Group prayers and specific prayers to the divinity may help. The road to recovery may not be possible sometimes, due to unacceptable body conditions that went to beyond repair state and is unable to support the incoming life force. This irrecoverable state sometimes may be the state that the “law of karma” bestows on certain souls as part of its working. In any case, against certain dominating ideas that are abstract to the normal common men/women, - like a potential divine curse or balancing act by karma or circumstances beyond human intervention etc., we cannot make a huge decision about ending a life - even out of the perceived state of mercy. We have to be a responsible individual or a group and should be in pursuit of excellence and our awareness about the working ways of the universe should propel us in the right direction and should help us protect each and every individual soul till it takes the last naturally drawn breath.

3.      The entire gamut of medical professionals perhaps abides by the Hippocratic oath consisting of – principles like - do no harm, confidentiality, professional integrity, commitment to lifelong learning and respect to patients. What if a doctor sanctions a patient for euthanasia and the next day in his commitment for lifelong learning, he finds a “potential” cure, but the patient is no longer alive? How will the “Do no harm” principle be treated under the topic of euthanasia?

4.      Besides the health care, prayers to alleviate pain and suffering by individuals and groups can be very effective. Sometimes, it may happen that, the poor souls negative karmic debt is forgiven due to prayers, and he may meet his end without much delay and suffering. On the same breath, I would like to add that potential miracles may happen, and the concerned person may live for some more time.

5.      Finally, by enabling good living conditions that support a healing body and a healing mind, we can make our best efforts to alleviate pain and suffering, but we should not try to play the role of “God of Death” and sanction ‘Euthanasia”.

6.      I recently happen to skim through some pages of the book “Bad Pharma” by Dr. Ben Goldacre. If that is the state/efficiency/effectiveness of our healthcare systems as mentioned in the book, we dare not think about “Euthanasia” now!

7.      In my opinion, even animals do not deserve “Euthanasia”. For any soul, the most preferred type of death is the “Internally Induced Death” as mentioned in the article – 3 types of death (https://www.mayoan.com/post/43-3-types-of-deaths ). For that to happen, we should be patient and wait, while carrying on with our life!

Hari Om!

Copyright © 2023-2048 Vijayabhaskar Natarajan. All rights reserved