From RICHARD and HILARY OKELL
One important aspect that was not discussed in either article was the
contribution of modern pain control treatments to alleviate pain, much support
for euthanasia being based on the desire to alleviate the pain of dying
people. Hospice doctors say that physical pain can now be controlled in
90 per cent of cases and significantly reduced in the remaining 10 per cent.
Making euthanasia legal is likely, at best, to reduce the funding for research
into more effective methods of pain control and, at worst, result in this
research being ended.
Mental anguish may also be experienced by a dying person and this can
be relieved by instilling hope. In Britain there are around 100 hospices
caring for the terminally ill and leading the way in both relieving pain
and instilling hope. It is perhaps worth noting that in the Netherlands
there is just one such hospice.
We quote Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the hospice movement in Britain:
‘I’m against euthanasia for the positive reason of all I have seen people
achieve in the ending of their lives – times that they and their families
would have missed; and it’s often time after they might have asked to opt
out when they perhaps would have gone in bitterness, whereas they finally
go in peace and fulfillment . . . ‘
Richard and Hilary Okell Bristol
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