| On an average of six times a day, a
doctor in Holland practices "active" euthanasia: intentionally administering a
lethal (致死的) drug to a terminally ill patient who has asked to be relieved of
suffering. Twenty times a day, life-prolonging treatment is withheld or
withdrawn when there is no hope that it can effect an ultimate cure. "Active"
euthanasia remains a crime on the Dutch statute books, punishable by 12 years in
prison. But a series of court cases over the past 15 years has made it clear
that a competent physician who carries it out will not be prosecuted. Euthanasia, often called "mercy killing" is a crime everywhere in Western Europe. But more and more doctors and nurses readily admit to practicing it, most often in the "passive" form of withholding or withdrawing treatment. The long simmering euthanasia issue has lately boiled over into a, sometimes, fierce public debate, with both sides claiming the mantle of ultimate righteousness. Those opposed to the practice see themselves upholding sacred principles of respect for life, while those in favor raise the banner of humane treatment. After years on the defensive, the advocates now seem to be gaining ground. Recent polls in Britain show that 72 percent of British subjects favor euthanasia in some circumstances. An astonishing 76 percent of respondents to a poll taken last year in France said they would like the law changed to decriminalize mercy killings. Euthanasia has been a topic of controversy in Europe since at least 1936, when a bill was introduced in the House of Lords that would have legalized mercy killing under very tightly supervised conditions. That bill failed, as have three others introduced in the House of Lords since then. Reasons for the latest surge of interest in euthanasia are not hard to find. Europeans, like Americans, are now living longer. Therefore, lingering chronic diseases have replaced critical illnesses as the primary cause of death. And the euthanasists argue that every human being should have the right to "die with dignity," by which they usually mean the right to escape the horrors of a painful or degrading hospitalization (住院治疗). Most experts believe that euthanasia will continue to be practiced no matter what the law says. |