Euthanasia

With the death of the Italian man Piergiorgaio Welby, the topic of euthanasia is once again in the headlines. Mr. Welby had fought for months now for greater rights for the terminally ill to end their own lives. It has raised a tremendous amount of debate in the strongly catholic parts of Europe. The Vacitan believes that life should begin and end naturally, no matter the suffering. The link to the article is below.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/world/europe/22italycnd.html
Personally, I feel that a person has the right to die with dignity. If they are terminally ill beyond all medical treatments and if it is their desire, they should be allowed assistance in ending their life. I would place one condition on this. There would have to be evidence that their suffering is beyond "normal" human suffering. Their pain would have to be so extreme that medicine does not ease it. Life support equipment should be used as long as the vital signs are normal. Being brain dead, is being dead, if you can not think, why would you want to live. Euthanasia blurs the lines of suicide, and doctors like the soon to be paroled, Jack Kevorkian are famous from it.
Suicide is a mistake. It is a selfish way out and should never be tied in with euthanasia. In my opinion most suicides steam from a personal disconnection with the world, they are used by people who see no other alternative. They are glamourized by people like Kurt Cobain, and they should not be. It is a weak act and mental illnesses can be cured, nurtured and corrected. When a person commits suicide they are not only cheating themselves but cheating their friends, family and those that may have met them had they lived their lives out. There will be no greater story you will tell if you are able to rise up out of the depths of an mental illness. When you are old, wrinkled and brittle, you will be able to tell a wise story to a person who may feel the way you did once. This world is cruel at times, with its wars, religious fractions, extremists, and diseases. At times, it is easy to become displaced. When we find strength in our friends, families and strangers, we will realize that all the strength we have every needed is deep inside ourselves. Where the skin protects the bones and the blood flows free in between.
Back to euthanasia, in Canada, my understanding is that it is illegal. I have pulled out sections from the Criminal Code of Canada.

"14. No person is entitled to consent to have death inflicted on him, and such consent does not affect the criminal responsibility of any person by whom death may be inflicted on the person by whom consent is given.
"241. Everyone who counsels a person to commit suicide or aids or abets a person to commit suicide, whether suicide ensues or not, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years."

I believe the Charter of Rights and Freedoms can be invoked here to debate that it is our Canadian right to die. The Charter tends to be used unnecessarily at times but with out it, I believe we would not have the core of our Canadian indentity. I will leave the debating for those with more knowledge than I have at the moment. I will end this with a simple statement, if I am terminally ill, unable to function as a normal human person, I want to die with out further disintergration of my body and mind.

Ramble on
John