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Schiavo's fate fires debate on euthanasia
The current debate in the United States over whether to prolong the life of a woman in a persistent vegetative state has also made euthanasia an issue of public concern in China. Some consider euthanasia a reasonable way to free patients from their suffering, others say the decision must only be decided by patients themselves, while experts remain cautious about euthanasia legislation because of concerns it could be seen as a licence to kill.
As for Terri Schiavo, judges admit the court's decision not to reinsert her feeding tube means her imminent death will bring the case to an end before any satisfactory legal conclusion can be arrived at. This unfortunate, but perhaps inevitable, situation means both pro and anti euthanasia camps will have to wait for further high profile tragedies before any meaningful concensus can finally be secured. The request to reinsert the feeding tube was made by the patient's parents Robert and Mary Schindler, while it was her husband Michael Schiavo who asked for the tube to be removed in the first place. He says his wife would not have wanted to be kept alive in the state she is in and that she has no hope for recovery. Following Whittemore's ruling not to reinsert the tube, lawyers for the parents immediately appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to "save Terri's life," Xinhua said. "If the disease cannot be cured and also causes huge suffering, then it is better that the patient dies," said Beijing resident Jing Peng.
But Ji Zhi, in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, said even if patients are unconscious, they still have a chance, however slim, to recover. It would be "murder" to apply euthanasia to such patients. Chen Xingliang, a professor at the School of Law of Peking University, said it is not yet time to legalize euthanasia in China. This is because at the moment it is hard to identify under what conditions euthanasia should be adopted, he explained, adding that, once legalized, euthanasia could be used as a means of murder. "We must be cautious, because it involves human life," he said. Qiu Renzong, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, agrees. He told one China Central Television (CCTV) programme that no legislation dealing with euthanasia should be attempted until all the debates on the issue have been solved. The same CCTV programme highlighted the case of a man, Wang Mingcheng, from Hanzhong in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province. Along with a doctor, Wang was charged with murder following the "mercy killing" of his mother in 1986. The two men were arrested and put into custody, and the case attracted national coverage becoming known as China's first euthanasia case. In 1991 the local court ruled the pair were innocent, saying that, although they did bring about the woman's death, no crime had been committed. But the story did not end there. In February 2003, Wang, terminally ill with stomach cancer, had his own requests for euthanasia turned down. The disease eventually killed him in August of the same year. |
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![The US Senate passed legislation that congressional leaders hope will keep alive a heavily brain-damaged Florida woman, Terri Schiavo (R), who has been fed artificially for 15 years. [AFP]](xin_1703022310560623074612.jpg)
