Parents Who Have a Severely Disabled Child Should Be Allowed to Euthanize Them Essay Example for Free

Parents Who Have a Severely Disabled Child Should Be Allowed to Euthanize Them Essay Some people call it mercy killing, others call it murder. This is a tough question for every parent in the word who has severely disabled child that will never be able to recognize them or even understands who he or she is and why. This problem has occurred over decades and there is a lot of proof that those children are not able to live full lives and some of them are in constant pain. What’s more in some countries euthanasia is allowed (1). Only the improvement of medical treatment is the reason why those children are still alive (2) and this treatment is quite expensive so governmental funds are needed (3). A part of society believes that it is cruel to force severely ill people to live when in normal conditions they would die. Euthanasia is a painless death caused by a medical injection and it is allowed in Brazil, in some occasions in Canada and in some states in the USA. This choice has to be made by the person who wants to be euthanized. If the adult in care or child are not able to make that choice by themselves it automatically means that this procedure cannot be done. In these situations the question of giving rights to choose to another person always occurs. It is a conflict between law and ethics. It would be more ethical to end ones suffering, but the law says that every person has a right to choose and a right to live. Every child has a right to live a life without pain and some of those diseases are incredibly painful even if painkillers are used. So it would be more humane to euthanize the child. As always, if there is seriously ill child a lot of funding is needed. If the parent or guardian does not have money to cover the expenses the governmental funding is needed. Marc Spindelman, a law professor at Ohio State University and an expert in bioethics thinks that politicians starts to look God like, because a single state spends around 2,5 billion a year on severely ill children, yet this amount of money is not enough, so they have to decide who lives and who dies. According to data it costs around 103, 000 $ a year on infant with ventilator and around 100, 000 $ a year on a baby who is connected to feeding tubes (Extreme choices, The right to live or die(n. d.)). If that kind of a choice is given to government there is a question of why it is not given to parents, because they are the ones that will know better whether to continue fighting or to let the child rest in peace. The main reason why nowadays there are more disabled children than in the past is because of medical development. Severely disabled children in past in most cases could not reach adolescence, because of the fact that there was no special medical equipment that could help to keep those children alive, like there is now, for example, feeding tubes. That means that they can survive as long as they are in a hospital or as long as parents or the government have funds to pay medical bills. There is a law in Canada that allows parents to disconnect the feeding tubes, but that means that they will starve to death. That is the main reason why Annette Corriveau wants to euthanize her children Janete and Jeffery. They do not respond and they are not able to move, roll over or even move their hands. They are in vegetative condition for more than ten years and there is only a slight possibility that there will be a medication that might improve their condition. As Annette said in an interview, she thinks that euthanasia would be the best thing that can happen to them, because she would not like to live a life like that and she does not know anyone who would(). Also, some parents are wondering why they can decide to have an abortion during any stage of pregnancy, if a disease is detected, yet cannot give birth to make sure that the child is truly sick and then euthanize him or her. The fact is that despite modern medical equipment there is a slight chance that the doctor might be wrong and parents will kill an innocent and healthy child. If we would follow the law of nature, this kind of question would not even be considered and no one would have to make that kind of a choice. Because of today’s medical equipment we keep alive those who should be resting in peace and putting them through different painful operations and treatments just because of the society’s opinion that euthanasia is considered murder and because we think that living even in vegetative state is better than death. SOURCES: 1. Extreme choices, The right to live or die (n. d.) Retrieved from: http://www.enquirer.com/extremechoices/loc_extremeday2.html ; 2. Taking mercy (8 of March, 2012) Retrieved from: http://www.globalnews.ca/taking+mercy/6442597182/story.html