Whose life is it, anyway?

Two weeks down my semester breaks while following the mundane routine of dabbling through a few blogs I came across an interesting video about “Suicide Tourism”. My curiosity accompanied with prescheduled nothingness took over and I spent next 2 hours googling the term that caught my attention ending up watching a movie on euthanasia directed by John Zaritsky. It was about Craig Ewart an American traveler to Switzerland who after paying a nonprofit organization”Dignitas” about 10,000 Swiss francs (about $8,300), drank a glass of water laced with sodium pentobarbital and died within 30 minutes. He had a motor neuron disease and thus under Swiss law had a right to kill himself.

Suicide tourism (sometimes called euthanasia tourism) is a form of tourism associated with the pro-euthanasia movement which organizes trips for potential suicide candidates in the few places where euthanasia is tolerated, in the hopes of encouraging the decriminalization of the practice in many parts of the world.

Though euthanasia is legal in Switzerland, Holland and Belgium. But the provision for foreign tourists to be assisted to commit the suicide on the criteria that “the person is terminally ill and suffers from an illness that inevitably leads to death, or from an unacceptable disability, and wants to end their life and suffering voluntarily” is served and promoted by just Switzerland. And Dignitas is the only organization in Switzerland that helps foreigners. The number of foreigners Dignitas helps each year—132 in 2007, compared to 91 in 2003—has increasingly left the Swiss uncomfortable with the country's growing reputation for "suicide tourism

Ever since a former journalist and human rights lawyer, Minelli founded Dignitas in Zurich in 1998 there has been a moral debate about euthanasia.

With time the term euthanasia has virtually abolished the term assisted suicide. Different ethical issues are at play when discussing euthanasia; those who are pro euthanasia believe that a terminally ill person has the right to seek the help of another for the purpose of helping that person to kill him or herself. Those who oppose euthanasia believe that more harm than good is gained by this practice. The meaning of euthanasia has been altered throughout the years; it once meant "good-death", but has now been corrupted to mean "mercy killing". The main question when debating euthanasia is not whether a person has the right to help another die, but whether a person who is terminally ill, believes that their life is worthless, who actively seeks help in committing suicide, and who is not suffering from depression, should have the right to request assistance in dying. The question of euthanasia is a question of choice and empowering people to have control over their bodies.
Opposition to euthanasia mainly comes from three different groups. Religious groups who oppose freedom of choice in abortion also oppose euthanasia. Medical associations who are dedicated to saving and extending lives feel uncomfortable helping people to end there. Others oppose euthanasia, as it is typically transient. Of those who try to kill themselves but are stopped, less than 4% go on to kill themselves in the next 5 years, and only 11% go on to kill themselves in the next 35.
But although depression and pain are treatable, tens of millions of people do not have access to adequate pain management. Many people do not have enough health care coverage to pay for the amount of drugs they would need to take to control the pain they feel Euthanasia, therefore is the most practical and logical solution for some people.
Euthanasia raises many ethical questions. One such question is whether or not the state has the right to deny one's wish to ask for another's assistance in suicide. AS for my opinion I do not believe that euthanasia is in any way unethical, but a humane solution for someone who is destined to live the rest of their life in pain and discomfort. It is more humane to allow someone to die surrounded by friends and family in a dignified manner, rather than being kept alive by a machine and surrounded by tubes.