If I am on my death bed, is Euthanasia an option for me? Is it a moral choice, a question of my faith or a question of my government? If I am terminally ill, my senses lost in an unconscious state, who decides my fate? Does the medical, moral and legal right to physician assisted suicide (Euthanasia) hinge on the thoughts of a Greek guy from 400BC?
These questions arise from what has become my most hotly contested comment section here on Associated Content. The article Please Kill Me…Sign Here – or An Overview of the Debate Over Euthanasia and the Right to Die, gets several comments a day. Many of these comments are deleted, because they are crude, beyond ignorant or just plain ridiculous. This leaves room for the more personal and insightful opinions that this hot button issue tends to provoke. The dynamics of supply and demand dictate that I should provide more information by expanding the ideas of the debate, or perhaps just fuel to the fire.
With that, we turn to the Hippocratic Oath, formulated by said Greek guy, Hippokrates of Kos (460BC – 370Bc), which shaped modern medicine. His philosophy of medicine and theories of moral guidance for practitioners has cemented him as the Father of Western Medicine. While times have changed and the Hippocratic Oath has evolved to suit the war waged between society and science on the human body, it’s view on Euthanasia has lasted its path throughout history.
At its most basic original translation, The Hippocratic Oath states, “I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan…” It seems that this attitude is still prevalent in that many U.S. states abide by the Hippocratic Oath, banning the use of euthanasia or physician assisted suicide.
In the United States only Oregon has had a clear law allowing euthanasia since 1994, with the Oregon Death with Dignity Act. There is some ongoing debate in Texas about legalizing euthanasia since 1999 with the Texas Futile Care law. Also in Texas was the case of the infant Sun Hudson in 2005, who suffered from the fatal disease thanatophoric dysplasia; where the court allowed the withdrawal of life support. In Washington State, Initiative 1000 made euthanasia legal in 2008 and the debate is also ongoing in Montana.
That means 47 U.S. states maintain a complete legal ban of euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. While most Americans, in fact even most American doctors don’t consciously abide by the Hippocratic Oath, their states overwhelming follow its advice on euthanasia. Interestingly enough, Gallup Poll surveys over the past 10 years continually show a higher percentage of American support for the use of euthanasia, up to 72%. The more interesting percentage of those surveys would be to see what physicians and doctors say. There are some numbers available, which are posted on this euthanasia website; http://euthanasia.procon.org (1), but we’ll stay clear of confusing the issue with statistics.
Let’s dip into the historical perspective of euthanasia, doctors and the Hippocratic Oath. Ian Dowbiggin writes, “…many ancient Greek and Roman physicians did not abide by its injunctions.” He continues in regards to euthanasia, “…the oath’s prohibition of euthanasia plainly was a kind of protest against the frequency with which euthanasia was practiced in the years before the revolutionary coming of Christianity. There never would have been a need for the oath’s injunction if euthanasia had been rare in the first place. The oath’s influence became powerful only in later centuries.”(2)
Centuries later, on the more extreme opposite end of the debate, two German professors, Karl Binding in Law and Alfred Hoche in Psychiatry, made an influential stamp on history with their paper, Permitting the Destruction of Unworthy Life in 1920. Dowbiggin writes, “Hoche grimly called for the overthrow of the customary religious ideas about the sanctity of life and warned that the Hippocratic Oath was no longer relevant to the conditions of state medicine in the twentieth century.”(3) These professors influenced European thought; calling for a stop to sustaining life for those with no real chance of living a normal, healthy life. Needless to say, their statements created a polemical spilt in the history of public and professional opinions on euthanasia.
All the same, these two rebellious Germans could not overturn centuries of fundamental thinking based on the Hippocratic Oath. Author Gail Tulloch asks, “Why is the Hippocratic ethic held to so absolutely? One reason seems to be fear of a slippery slope, that it will be impossible to hold the line and prevent extension to less justifiable situations.”(4) Hospice physician and author David Cundiff relates with Tulloch’s slippery slope argument, writing, “Although this oath (Hippocratic) is primarily of historical interest and no longer administered to most medical graduates, it remains another dissuading factor in the physician’s mind.”(5)
The many revised translations and interpretations of the Hippocratic Oath, all seem to hold true to its original objection to euthanasia. Seen above is the original translation and the classical translation reads; “I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect.” While the Hippocratic Oath is not a legally binding ethic for doctors, nor is it even recited at medical graduations, the modern translation still reads, “I will neither prescribe nor administer a lethal dose of medicine to any patient even if asked nor counsel any such thing…”
Apparently, nothing much has changed for euthanasia in the evolving text of the Hippocratic Oath, yet the debate continues to evolve to meet the needs of modern medicine. As a society still heavily influenced by the classical Greek philosophies and ethics, is it still the slippery slope that we fear in euthanasia? Please comment away…
References:
(1) http://euthanasia.procon.org/viewresource.asp?resourceID=000133
(2) Dowbiggin, Ian. A Concise History of Euthanasia: Life, Death, God and Medicine, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, pg. 11.
(3) Dowbiggin, Ian. A Concise History of Euthanasia: Life, Death, God and Medicine, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, pg. 79
(4) Tulloch, Gail. Euthanasia, Choice and Death, Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2005, pg. 32
(5) Cundiff, David. Euthanasia is not the answer, Humana Press, 1992, 0g. 64
