Should people get assisted suicide?
They say the right to life implies the right to dignity, which implies the right to die when life becomes insupportable. This statement sounds good in theory but … it is a grey and very controversial subject. Why? Well, euthanasia is basically killing, which can be justified under certain circumstances. I think it is generally accepted that if a person has an incurable, terminal illness that is insupportable (or a degenerative disease), they could be given the right to die had they wished so. But the problem is where the line between medical killing and legal euthanasia should stand. In Belgium (where assisted suicide is legal), the number of young adults who request euthanasia is growing. Controversially, most of these young adults have mental disorders that could be cured, such as depression or post traumatic stress disorders. Does this mean euthanasia just makes killing oneself easier for suicidal people? This definitively seems to be the case, but why?
Some days ago, I read an article about the drawbacks of recent technological and techno-social advancements. Basically, the article talked about how around 20 years old people are affected, mentally, by the new concept of ‘social’. Humans are social creatures and we tend to look for groups to live in. Nowadays, social groups are more or less ‘virtual’. Thus, young adults that were not born in the technological area but they had to adapt as it progressed find themselves more vulnerable to the new social trends. Thus, we feel more and more lonely. Our social instinct grieves social interaction but it is not that easy anymore (when you want to talk to a new person, you realise everyone is emerged in their phones, laptops or any communication device). Therefore, depression and loneliness is always there …. but just because it is harder to adapt it does not mean we should let them die. Society is a mechanism created to protect human life above all. From doctors to technology, all of it was made with the intention to keep life, not end it for trivial reasons.
Thus, if an adequate law to ‘kill oneself’ should be implemented, it must have strong safeguards and a special regard for mentally disturbed individuals.
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