Try euthanasia to end pain
Assorted pharmaceutical medicine pills, tablets and capsules on wooden bowl.
What you need to know:
- It is necessary to discuss this subject to save many families from paucity.
- Pleas for money by Kenyans to seek treatment overseas, especially in India, are rampant.
Article 26 of the Constitution guarantees the right to life but many religions proscribe taking one’s life. Why let a person live while hopelessly ill or experiencing intolerable suffering with no prospect of improvement or acceptable solutions to alleviate their condition?
I propose that Kenya follow the models of legislation from developed economies such as Australia and the Netherlands to adopt and implement euthanasia and assisted suicide. This, of course, after wide consultations and, possibly, a referendum, while reflecting on the ethos of the various communities and putting in place measures to protect the practice from abuse or misuse.
Euthanasia is a permit or license to the medical professional for ending the life of a person either in response to a request from the family or the person in question. It has existed for centuries.
Treatment overseas
In ancient Greece and Rome, helping others to put an end to their lives was permitted in certain situations.
Albeit controversial, it is necessary to discuss this subject to save many families from paucity. Pleas for money by Kenyans to seek treatment overseas, especially in India, are rampant.
The high cost of treatment has elicited debate on whether to spend so much on the dying — especially if the patient is elderly and terminally ill or in an irreversible coma — or let the person be assisted to die and allocate the resources to other, socially desirable domestic needs.
Health and poverty
Health spending, especially catastrophic one, is a vital additional cause of poverty. The vicious circle linking health and poverty remains a challenge in Kenya. Reports show that catastrophic health expenditure and impoverishment pushed 2.5 million people below the national poverty line in 2007.
In developing economies, medical costs exert the greatest financial pressure on low-income households and people suffering prolonged poor health.
Euthanasia would alleviate poverty, reduce medical bills, ease pressure on health infrastructure and release the patient from undeserved suffering.
Mr Ochieng is a student at Kenya Institute of Mass Communication.
