“In most cases, a shortage of funds for medical care is the main reason people choose euthanasia, not their worry of an allegedly incurable disease. Choosing a mercy killing due to a lack of funds for treatment would be just such a tragedy.”

    — Wang Kaiyu from the Anhui Academy of Social Sciences

    A COUPLE’S plea to humanely allow their ailing son to die was rejected by their local civil affairs bureau.

    The 16-month-old boy from eastern China’s Anhui Province suffered severe brain damage in December when he was injured on a conveyer belt at his father’s factory. Even though he was discharged from the hospital in January, he cannot move, talk or breathe on his own. Every three hours, his mother must inject milk into his stomach tube to feed him. Doctors say his chances of recovery are almost nonexistent.

    “We cannot bear to watch our son starving to death,” said his father. The couple asked doctors and the civil affairs bureau of Huoqiu County if they could end the boy’s suffering, but were firmly rejected because euthanasia is illegal in China.

    The story has reignited the debate over euthanasia in China because, sadly, this case is not exceptional.

    In 2007, a 29-year-old woman named Li Yan attracted nationwide attention by posting a short article on her blog. Living with a motor-neuron disease for almost her whole life, she could only move her head and some fingers. “I love my life, but I would rather die if I cannot live with dignity,” she wrote.

    Her parents acted as her cooks, nurses and caregivers. “I am their burden,” Li wrote. “They are getting old and I cannot imagine what life will be like when they are gone.”

    Supporters say mercy killings save people from unnecessary suffering and that people should be allowed to choose their own fate.

    Pan Jing, a doctor at the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, believes legalization of euthanasia is both necessary and urgent.

    “In 30 years’ working in this hospital, I have seen how miserable patients are when there is no cure for their illnesses,” she said. “I have seen unconscionable suffering, hopelessness and lingering pain that can only be ended by death.”

    Pan says that around a quarter of her patients expressed the wish to die painlessly and with dignity. “I feel sorry for them, of course, but there is nothing I can do to help.”

    Opponents of euthanasia consider it an infringement of people’s right to life, claiming that it is a complicated issue involving factors such as jurisprudence, ethics and medical technology, and is difficult to handle in practice.

    “The right to life is paramount,” said Wei Ansong, a lawyer. “Nobody can end one’s life but oneself.”

    According to a previous survey conducted by the public opinion research center at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, about 70 percent of the more than 3,400 people polled from 34 cities across China approved the practice of “peaceful death,” or euthanasia. In addition, the majority of those polled called for specific legislation for euthanasia.

    However, those opposed pointed out that the creation of a euthanasia law to make the practice legal might, in fact, lead to murder. They further indicated that euthanasia is an act of deliberately ending a person’s life with an overdose of muscle relaxants and could be equivalent to assisted suicide.

    A group of legal experts in Beijing stated Jan. 25 that the couple in Anhui’s request for euthanasia of their son would constitute a violation of Chinese law if carried out.

    “The boy’s suffering really tugs at his parents’ heartstrings. They want to help him alleviate or even end the pain. However, the practice of euthanasia is against the law in the People’s Republic of China and would be met with a formal accusation by Chinese governmental authorities, asserting that Xiong’s parents would have been guilty of committing intentional homicide,” asserted a legal expert of the group.

    “According to the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, it stipulates that the inherent or inalienable rights of its citizens, including the right to life, should be respected and safeguarded. Obviously, the practice of euthanasia conflicts with existing Chinese laws.

    “As for the legalization of euthanasia, it would be a tough and long-term task to fulfill in light of the country’s current imperfect or even backward medical-care system and is especially complicated by the fact that it could easily lead to manslaughter if used improperly,” said Chen Genfa, associate research fellow at the Institute of Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

    Statistics compiled in 2010 in the Netherlands — one of only four countries in which euthanasia is legal — showed that there were roughly 3,200 people whose life was ended by euthanasia, among whom 72 percent were suspected of being murdered.

    It is hard to judge whether the patients are making free choices based on their own will. Wang Kaiyu from the Anhui Academy of Social Sciences told Xinhua that he considers China neither prepared nor mature enough to legalize the practice.

    One precondition of allowing patients to choose to die is that their families, medical institutions and government departments have all fully carried out their responsibilities to save the patient’s life, he said.

    “The situation in China is different from that of Western countries. China bears witness to an unsound medical-care system. In most cases, a shortage of funds for medical care is the main reason people choose euthanasia, not their worry of an allegedly incurable disease. Therefore, the approval of a euthanasia law would be met by an overwhelming and unfortunate number of cases in which poverty-stricken sufferers would opt for peaceful death for financial reasons,” continued Wang, whose views and insight on euthanasia has won support from a number sociologists who specialize in China’s social welfare system.

    “Choosing a mercy killing due to a lack of funds for treatment would be just such a tragedy,” Wang said.

    While a few countries currently allow euthanasia, such as the Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland, all of them could fairly be described as very highly developed.

    Moral, ethical and legal debate on this complicated, heartrending issue will continue with no end in sight.

    (SD-Agencies)