A letter from yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald makes the unpopular observation that human nature, being what it will, will express itself in negative ways when given the opportunity.
When a legal right is created some people will try to take advantage of it for their own malicious and selfish ends, no matter how many boundaries, sanctions and safeguards are put in place.
It’s unpopular to say it, but people are not good by inclination.
This is tacitly conceded by the number of ‘safe-guards’ built into euthanasia proposals. But the only functional way of ensuring that such a system will not be abused is by not having the system.
During my early medical postgraduate years I was a strong supporter of end-of-life patient requests for euthanasia. Now, in my middle years, with more wisdom and having worked for more than 20 years in government health facilities, I am quite sure no amount of safety nets, protocols or regulations would protect patients from deleterious personality types that are not uncommon within the various professions.
Even one life ended by use of medical misappropriation, deception or abuse of power should remain unacceptable.
Dr Linda Mayer Pyree
HT: Gordon Cheng.
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