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Dr Peter Ravenscroft is against euthanasia. He is a Medical Professor in Palliative Care at a hospital in New South Wales, Australia. |
EUTHANASIA (n): painlessly killing someone to stop more suffering. |
| In 1996 the government of Australia's Northern Territory passed a law allowing voluntary euthanasia. Peter Ravenscroft suggests that this law was passed because very little care is available for terminally ill patients in the Northern Territory. | VOLUNTARY (adj): without
being forced. Willingly
TERMINALLY ILL: so ill that someone will certainly die. |
| Dr Ravenscroft believes that euthanasia is wrong.
He believes that when people have an incurable illness, they should be
given palliative care. That means care that lessens their pain and suffering,
and helps them to feel less afraid. He says that palliative care tries
to improve the quality of a person's life, even the very last part of their
life, without bringing death. Dr Ravenscroft suggests, for example, that
patients can be given a drug to help them sleep for the last few days of
their life, if nothing else will help them.
Ravenscroft said "I value sitting with dying patients or holding their hands. It reminds me that life is a great mystery and we all share the characteristics of being human. We take part in all of life, including dying, but we are not masters of it." |
An INCURABLE (adj)
illness is an illness that can't be cured.
PALLIATIVE (adj): medical treatment which reduces suffering but does not cure. |
| If euthanasia is legal, it may be easier to
choose death instead of continuing to look for a better treatment. Ravenscroft
has had patients who lived much longer than they were expected to live,
and other patients whose pain suddenly became less. If euthanasia had been
available, they might have died too soon.
Ravenscroft has another reason for not making euthanasia legal. He fears that people can be persuaded to choose euthanasia when they do not really want to. He thinks it is unlikely that legal safeguards or guidelines can stop this from happening. |