Well, this had to happen sooner or later. A legal commission is the state of Kerala has recommended a pretty sweeping legalization of euthanasia:
Kerala Law Reforms Commission has presented a proposal, which recommends that euthanasia or mercy killing should be made legal in the state. The proposal also suggests deletion of Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code which holds attempt to suicide as an offence. The panel was headed by retired Supreme Court judge V.R. Krishna Iyer.
Euthanasia is defined in the proposal as “deprivation of life by oneself, or by any other person at the insistence of the person whose life is lost, or by medical practitioner doing any act or omission resulting in termination of life.”
The proposal says that if the victim of suffering and his closest relatives, after taking responsible medical opinion about the irrecoverability of pain-free normality, creates the right to euthanasia. Solace compassion, justice and humanism make euthanasia a legally permissible farewell to life in its misery and desperation.
Sounds nice, doesn’t it?
Trouble is, it ignores the reality of the rash of highly-publicized pleas for “mercy killings” put forth by families and individuals in India over the past few years. This is a fairly representative example:
KOLKATA: An ailing 40-year-old woman and her husband have written to the District Magistrate of North 24-Parganas seeking permission to undergo euthanasia, official sources said.
Swapna Das, suffering from a kidney disorder, and her husband Biswanath, a soccer coach at a local club, got married five years ago. The couple stated that they have decided to end their lives because they can not meet the cost of treating Das’ illness.
“We need Rs 6,000 for a dialysis and another Rs 3.5 lakh for a replacement,” Das said. Biswanath said they were currently dependent on neighbours’ help for her survival.
This couple is typical of the “mercy killing” pleas that have emerged in India. Central to virtually every story is the despair over the inability to get treatment, support or in some cases even adequate food and shelter.
But the Kerala Law Reforms Commission neatly ignored the economic and social factors that have been central to the plight of those who have sued for permission to kill themselves, a relative or be killed by a third party.
In almost every publicized case, the plea for euthanasia was lost, but the publicity forced the government to free up some resources for the suffering family or individual.
Maybe the members of the Kerala Law Reforms Commission are tired of that kind of embarrassment. If the recommendations of the commission are followed, families in dire straits won’t have to file suit. There will be no public clamor or attention called to how little support there is for families with ill or disabled family members. No demand on the government to do more for these families.
Instead, they just get to die quietly. And the government can call it “compassion.” –Stephen Drake
Context: overpopulation and overcrowding could be a major factor luring people to the siren song of utilitarianism. Throw a stalling economy into the mix.
Mike,
What you say is true, but the amazing thing is that when these pleas for “mercy killing” come up, the public in India still manages to be outraged by the lack of support given to these families and individuals.
My main point, in any case, was that the Commission is – at the very least – misleading people about the nature of the “suffering” leading people to want to die, at least based on the press reports I’ve read. In almost every case, it’s about the lack of support and money, rather than the disability or illness.
The Commission avoided saying “we don’t want to pay for what these people need” – they said “we need to be compassionate and kill them when they ask.”
If you think we disabled folks have trouble getting care in the US, our ferocious, never-ending struggles are by no means the most difficult in the world.
The global poor, including millions of Indians, do not get the most basic primary health care, let alone the care needed for such disabilities as kidney failure.
I have always thought that the inaction of the wealthier countries on the health of the global poor is a form of mass euthanasia. This form of violence is now begetting the violence of internalized ablism leading to death wishes on the part of sick people and these calls to legally permit active killing.
Luckily, as you suggest, the Indian public is onto what these desperate cries are all about. We can only hope for the US public to get this wise.
marysia,
Thanks for that reminder. You’re right – there’s an enormous amount of wealth held in the hands of relatively few countries.
Most of our efforts and attention are directed at the U.S., but the injustices associated with poverty across the world are gaining increased attention in the U.S. disability community.
I hope that your optimism regarding the population is warranted. I fear that if enough opinion leaders start talking about euthanasia as a “compassionate” solution, the general public may forget that most of these pleas were really cries of desperation regarding a lack of care, support and resources. –Stephen