The current disputes about euthanasia legislation in various countries around the world mainly focus on whether doctors have the authority to end the patient’s life when the patient has no hope of surviving and is extremely painful. The reason why countries that disagree with euthanasia legislation opposes is that it is difficult to define the behavioral yardstick for doctors to "process suicide" for patients, and it cannot guarantee that they will not be used by others.
The original meaning of the Greek word for euthanasia was "a peaceful and easy death". The first to use this word was the Roman historian Suvitonius. In his "The Twelve Emperors of Rome", there is A scene depicting the death of the ancient Roman emperor Augustus. At the time of his death, Augustus passed away peacefully and painlessly under the affectionate kiss of his wife Livia. This is more like in line with the concepts of "end of life" and "good death" in the Chinese concept. There is still a big difference from the "kill someone without pain" explained in the current English dictionary.
奥古斯都
Euthanasia: from reducing the burden on society to usurping the creator’s right to life and death
In ancient India, patients who had no hope of cure would usually be drowned In the Ganges; similar situations in ancient Greece, especially patients who are extremely painful and eager to seek relief, it is easy to get a relief poison. Plato once wrote: "People who are extremely mentally and physically ill should let them On the road to death, they have no meaning to survive." As for Sparta, if a newborn baby boy is found to be physically sick or disabled, he will be killed to ensure that he will not become a "burden to others" in the future. In an era when the level of production in human society is low, it may be appropriate to streamline members who are unable to produce their own necessities and means of subsistence in this way of "active euthanasia" and reduce the burden on society.
斯partan warrior
However, since the Roman Empire began, with the increase in social productivity and Catholicism became the main faith, active euthanasia has been regarded as A kind of "crime of murder" is expressly prohibited. The main reason is that the Catholic Church believes that God is the ruler of human existence, and that people have no right to end their own lives or the lives of others. Sickness, including pain before death. Both are regarded as arrangements of the gods, suicide and euthanasia are acts of usurping the Creator's power to dominate life and death. Although religion dominates most of the thinking and life of Westerners, in the 16th century, Thomas Moore mentioned euthanasia in his famous book Utopia. In Utopia, if someone has an incurable disease, physicians, clergy, and government leaders will talk to the patient, hoping that he will pin his hopes in the afterlife. If the patient agrees, he can get help and die without pain in his sleep. If you disagree, you can continue to be taken care of.
Roman Gladiator
The same concept also appeared in 1627, another well-known scholar Friis Bacon’s unfinished novel "New Atlantis" In the novel, the novel mentions that in addition to curing the patients, the duty of a physician is to minimize the suffering of patients who are hopeless to survive, and if necessary, to let them die without hesitation without hesitation. This is the last dignity of a person. . This kind of medical fantasies, for a scholar regarded as a philosopher, was a very avant-garde creation at the time. In particular, he did not like to use the word "painless lethality", but more prominently to relieve pain and give the doctor The meaning of the whole behavior. After Darwin's theory of evolution was put forward, the role of God as the creator was severely tested. Although helping others to commit suicide is still a crime, many scholars have put forward the concept of euthanasia, challenging the taboo of the general environment.
Frisis Bacon
The sprung up legislative proposals for euthanasia were rejected one by one
In 1870, the well-known scholar Samuel Williams first proposed " The concept of medical euthanasia. In 1895, the German lawyer Jonst had prepared to write a legal book "The Law of Murder", emphasizing that those patients who had no hope of cure should grant their request if they wanted to die, because their survival value was zero. Since the beginning of the 20th century, discourses on euthanasia have sprung up. New York and Oregon, the United States, first proposed legislation on euthanasia, which was rejected at the time; French medicineTeacher Folg also proposed that euthanasia for incurable patients should be forgiven in law; Soviet Russia even briefly passed the commutation of the crime of euthanasia in 1922, but it was quickly rejected.
Lenin in Soviet Russia
Nazi Germany revised the Doctor’s Declaration in 1933, stating that the responsibility of doctors is no longer only for the health of patients, but to create a healthy Germany. Under the guise of euthanasia, the Nazis implemented a policy of genocide and massacred 350,000 unhealthy, mentally retarded and gay Germans, as well as millions of Jews. The revelation of Nazi crimes makes people have to be taboo when discussing issues of euthanasia and eugenics. In the following decades, there were numerous proposals and legislative proposals related to euthanasia, but most of their proposals were rejected by national and local legislatures. So far, it has not been legalized in most countries. Why? In the eyes of supporters of euthanasia, euthanasia can help desperate patients get out of suffering. They believe that humans have the right to do whatever they want with their bodies, including ending their lives to relieve suffering.
Nazi Boy Scout
The existence of reasonable does not mean that legislation must be supported
The British Broadcasting Corporation once followed the whole process of filming an old man doing euthanasia, he was only in Alzheimer’s At the beginning of the disease, the memory had begun to slowly fade in his brain, but he had not yet reached the state of complete dementia. He decided to bid farewell to this world when he was conscious. I learned from the interview that the old man has always lived a very good life. His wife also said that he especially loved beauty and sports when he was young. Even when he was 60 or 70 years old, he could still tell from his face that he was very young when he was young. Handsome. In his twilight years, he had to use a wheelchair to travel, and his memory began to blur. He didn't want to live like this. I feel that there is no point without quality. He was not tortured by the unbearable illness, but was tortured by what he thought was unbearable. The tolerance for living conditions is too different from person to person.
euthanasia by injection
Some people feel that as long as they are alive, they can tolerate and persevere with one breath; some people feel that they are living without beauty and vitality, and can’t take care of themselves. I don't want to live anymore. If euthanasia is passed through legislation, who can guarantee that it will not cause some form of comparison. Although the patient must voluntarily choose euthanasia, he will be "easy" when he sees others "that" just now. How can it not be stressful. If illness can be used as a reason for ending life, will those invisible and psychological pains sooner or later become a reason for euthanasia? In fact, there has been such a precedent that a twin brother who was deaf in both ears and then blind in both eyes applied for euthanasia, and it was passed and implemented.
The movie "Live"
From the doctor's point of view, since the patient can be sentenced to euthanasia if it is not cured, the pain of terminally ill patients stimulates the motivation to challenge the cutting-edge of medicine. Not that big anymore. And once in charge of life and death, doctors can become the most dangerous person in a country. Some demented, disabled, and mental patients who have undergone euthanasia are not voluntary. Doctors murdered them without their consent. But even so, the rationality of the demand for euthanasia is still indelible. Reasons can be found from the perspectives of economics, philosophy, sociology, and psychology, but it is always a problem in legislation. The law is a powerful tool that can change people’s beliefs, behavior, and conscience. Once a measure is legalized, the public will generally accept it. Therefore, it is also a rational consideration that most countries cannot accept euthanasia legislation at this stage.
