Is Euthanasia Humane？

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A Doctor of Good Repntation Hastened His Patient's Death

The most famous mercy killing case in America's history involves Dr. Herman N. Sanders, a country doctor from New Hampshire. In the early 1950s Dr. Sanders had been treating a sixty-year-old woman in Hillsboro County Hospital who was dying of cancer. The woman had wasted away from 140 pounds to 80 pounds. There was no chance for recovery and she suffered extreme pain. Often she screamed out in anguish from her bed. She begged everyone who'came near her to help her die. Toward the end there was little Dr. Sanders could do medically to ease his patient's suffering. He knew that her last,days would be torturously painful. So he decided to put an end to her misery. Dr. Sanders gave his patient four lethal injections of air, which caused her to die painlessly in under ten minutes. He recorded his action on the hospital's record and said no more of the matter.

However, hospital administrators came across Dr. Sanders' entry when reviewing the records at a staff meeting and reported it to the state. A warrant for the doctor's arrest was issued and served by the sheriff. The warrant charged that Dr. Sanders “feloniously and willfully and of his own malice and aforethought did inject……air into the veins of Abbie Borroto and with said injection, feloniously and willfully and of his said malice aforethought killed and murdered his patient”。 The doctor pleaded not guilty and was released on $ 25, 000 bail .

Dr. Sanders had been a known and respected member of his community for many years. He was born in New Hampshire, where his father had been an official of the Public Service Corporation of New Haxripshire. In college, Dr. Sanders had been captain of the Dartmouth ski team as well as a member of the college symphony orchestra. He had recently returned from Europe where he had continued his study of medicine. Until the time of the mercy killing, his reputation was excellent. Dr. Sanders had been considered a trusted and honored physician.

In response to the charges hurled against him, Dr…… Sanders claimed that he had done no wrong. The woman had been within hours of her death. Moved by pity, he had merely hastened an extremely brutal end. The Sunday after his arrest； Dr. Sanders and his family attended services at their church as usual. His minister and other clergymembers across the state openly expressed their support.

One minister in a nearby town preached a stirring sermon in Dr. Sanders' defense. He said that if the doctor was guilty, he was guilty too. For he had often prayed that some suffering parishioner might be “eased into the experience of death” . I.ater that day 605 of the 650 registered voters in his town presented Dr. Sanders with a written testimonial to his integrity and goodwill. They told him to use it wherever it might help him to prove his innocence.

However, their efforts did little good. The attorney-general of New Hampshire firmly stated that “the case will be presented forcefully and in complete detail, regardless of the personalities involved, to the end that justice may be met”。 In response, hundreds of Dr. Sanders' fellow townspeople offered to testify on his behalf. They signed petitions urging the courts to dismiss the case. Nevertheless, a grand jury indicted him for first-degree murder. “All I can say,” stated Sanders, “is that I am not guilty of any legal or moral wrong and ultimately my position will be vindicated.

Not long afterward, Dr. Sanders was acquitted. But even after he was declared innocent, some were intent on punishing the doctor. His license to practise medicine was suspended. And while some clergymembers had supported Dr. Sanders, others loudly condemned him from their pulpits. Among them was the Reverend Billy Graham, who stated in Boston that “Dr. Sanders should be punished as an example” and that “anyone who voluntarily, knowingly or premeditatedly takes the life of another, even one minute prior to death, is a killer.

While Dr. Sanders was not permitted to practise medicine, he supported himself and his family by working as a farm hand. Finally the Medical Board of the State of New Hampshire reinstated his license. And Dr. Sanders has continued as a doctor in his hometown ever since.

II . Read

Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.

l. Euthanasia： Life or Death Matter Euthanasia, or mercy killing, is quietly being practised in some urban areas of China despite a lack of legal protection for the death option. Helping to hasten the death of terminally ill patients is humane, said Cai Wenmei, an associate professor at the Institute of Population at Beijing University.

Death should not be viewed.as a failure, but as a normal and natural stage of life, according to Cai. People have the right to die. Death, Cai said, is as natural as birth and, like birth, is sometimes a hard process requiring assistance. It is unnecessary to artificially maintain life beyond the point when people can never regain consciousness. Statistics indicate that medical treatment for a comatose patient costs 26, 000 yuan a year, a heavy burden for the hospital and the patient,s family.

“Extending an incurably ill patient's life means the same as aggravating his pain,” Cai said. Birth and death are both natural events, but the emotional impact and the personal meanings of these events are vastly different. Birth is usually anticipated with excitement and joy, while the reality of death is often avoided as best one can. Views on death are changing in China, where a traditional saying is that debt is better than death, and doctors and nurses do everything they can to save dying patients, including the use of medication and life-support systems.

A survey of 200 old people shows that 92 per cent do not fear death. They do not want a long waiting period. They want to die with dignity and peace, instead of agony and degradation. Euthanasia is a progressive way to die, said a report in Beijing Daily. Mercy killing can hasten the death of hopelessly ill individuals by withholding life-sustaining procedures so that death will occur naturally and quickly.

According to Cai, euthanasia can end the pain of terminally ill patients and can also be a great relief to their family members, both mentally and physically. However, the general adoption of the practice of euthanasia would require changes in ethics and this should happen only after the issue is carefully considered by society.

Cai suggests working out laws on euthanasia to protect the practice. Mercy killing, generally induced by an injection of sedatives, should be performed only at the patient's request, with the consent of his relatives and the signature of a lawyer. Hospitals and family members should respect the dying person's iights in regard to choices about lifestyle, including death.

However, it would not be right for medical personnel or family members to casually assume that a patient is beyond hope until a thorough examination is made of his physical condition and of the effect of further medical treatment. Hospitals avoid legal problems by requiring the patient' s family members to request the induced death in writing and by having joint approval of all medical personnei attending the case, including nurses and anesthesiologists. Deng Yingchao, widow of former Premier Zhou Enlai, said that she is very much in favour of mercy killing as a practical concept.

Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go for euthanasia to be widely accepted because many people still consider it inhumane to perform mercy killing for a patient, no matter how painlessly. According to the report in Beijing Daily, time is not yet ripe for drawing up laws for euthanasia because the concept will require complicated changes. Instead, the report advocates,education on death.