During my second block, general block in Malmesbury, Swartland Hospital. I had an obese patient with L4 and L5 osteoarthritis, this patient suffered this pain for months , they then gave her an option to to fuse L4 and L5 to reduce her pain as it eventually started having neurological symptoms, she took this option because the pain was affecting her everyday life. Considering that it escalated to showing neurological symptoms, it affected her mobility and her activities of daily living. She went ahead and fused her L4 and L5, the pain subsided for a month then it started again, there were complications of the fusion because she developed osteoarthritis of L3 and L4 with neurological symptoms that are worsening, pain medication was not helping she says. She also had bilateral knee osteoarthritis. With all these conditions, she was forced to quit her job and has episodes of depression, she is a sole breadwinner and lives alone. During my engagement with the patient, she kept on saying that she wishes she could die because she has nothing to live for.

This encounter with this specific patient had me thinking about the concept of MAiD (Medical assistance in dying), Assisted suicide is the intentional ending of one’s own life with the assistance of someone else(Young, 2019) . In a medical context, this might take the form of a physician prescribing a lethal dose of medication for a patient to take by themselves.Euthanasia is the “intentional termination of the life of a person, by another person, in order to relieve the first person’s suffering” – for example, a physician administering an IV medication to a patient in order to cause their death(Young, 2019). Voluntary euthanasia occurs when this is done with the individual’s consent, non-voluntary euthanasia occurs when this is done to an individual without consent, and involuntary euthanasia occurs when this is done to an individual despite their expressed refusal. MAiD usually refers to either assisted suicide, voluntary euthanasia, or both.(Young, 2019)

Euthanasia is legal in some countries(Belgium, Netherlands,Switzerland,Canada) and illegal in other countries, particularly in South Africa where Euthanasia is illegal(Clarke, 2016) . With reference made to the patient described above, I believe that when people feel that helpless and are in constant pain, they should be allowed to withdraw from life should they wish to, this is regardless the severity of pain. People should have a right to withdraw from life should they wish to, for whatever reason they present, healthy or not.  The Netherlands and Belgium, euthanasia (doctor-assisted suicide is rarely requested) can be provided to all competent adults who are suffering irreversibly – but, if a patient is not terminally ill, there is a one-month waiting period before euthanasia can be performed. This concept of Euthanasia is usually talked about or really debated about only with the context of patient who are terminally ill or in severe physical pain, this means that euthanasia is only considered to patient who have severe recognized diseases or deteriorating health that can be objectified. This is measured in tests and also in the subjectivity of the pain by the patient, in a health context but fail to include psychological, environmental and social aspects. According to world health organization, Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, which means laws that only focus on terminally ill patients ignore other aspects of health like mental health, questions like why is mental health not considered when thinking of euthanasia, is mental health not as important as physical health, that is debatable . This brings me to analysis a thread on twitter written by a Doctor he mentioned that “this is the best death i have witnessed” after a process of MAid of a particular patient who had a severe condition. People should be allowed to withdraw from participating in life should they wish to. Pain is subjective, people perceive pain differently therefore it is unfair that one has to proof severe pain to be granted a right to die thus stopping the pain.

references

Young, R. (2019). Medically Assisted Death.

Clarke, K. (2016). Medically Assisted Death in Canada – Unsettled (and Unsettling?) Law. Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association / Journal de l’Association des bibliothèques de la santé du Canada, 37(3).