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<title> Euthanasia - A Human Right </title>
	The word "euthanasia" stir up many feelings inside of us. It originates in the Greek language and means "good death". As soon as death is brought up for discussion we tend to defensively distance ourselves; it is very unpleasant to talk about it. But I think it is important that we do discuss it, since we all have very different thoughts and conceptions about death and how we want to face it when it's our turn. One aspect to discuss is whether or not we should allow assistance to people who want to committ suicide, but are incapable in one way or another to do so.
	Today, euthanasia is only allowed for people living in Columbia, Japan, the Netherlands and the state of Oregon (in the U.S.A.). I think this is strange since more than these four states have ratified the UN Decleration of Human Rights, which states in its third article that all individuals have the right to life. And, as I see it, death is the end of life, in other words, dying is the last thing we do in life, and thus the right to life indirectly grants us a right to end our life whenever we want to. This point of view is supported by most countries, who in fact do not regard suicide as a legal crime. As a matter of fact, it would be quite absurd to have a legal procedure against a person who is accused of killing herself. 
Everyday we choose between continue living our lives or not to continue living and instead end our suffering by committing suicide. By doing so we have not broken any judicial law. But if we happen to end up in a hospital bed, unable to perform even the simplest of movements and even less take our lives, the law will have to be broken by others in order to execute our uttermost privilege as human beings. I say it is a privilege, because I think that when a person is in such pain, or feels that living is so indignant in her state that she rather dies than tries to continue her fight to live, then it most certainly must be a privilege to have the right to end it once and for all. 
There's really no right or wrong side of this discussion. But what I think the opponents of euthanasia disregards far too often, and show little sympathy for, is the wish and rights of the suffering patient. They tend to restrict their arguing to a discussion of old-fashioned morals and preachings. And since they are a majority, and the laws forbidding euthanasia are in their favor, they thus impose power over the human rigths granted in the third article as mentioned above, in a way they would not be able to if the patients were capable of committing suicide on their own. The patients are deprived of their rights to decide over their own lives. Therefore I think euthanasia should be judicially on a level with suicide. 
This is not an easy issue to take a stand on, or even discuss, since there are so many different opinions and emotions surrounding it. Of course, this issue is extremely full of emotion to those who have a family member or close relative in a situation where her fate lies in the machine which keeps her breathing and regularly nourishes her, or whose pain wont't leave until she is so full of drugs that she is more dead than alive. Because of the pain a situation like this causes the patient's family, every effort should be made in order to persuade the patient to reconsider her decision. And the routines and procedures should be well developped, as well as the matters of responsibility and who should "turn off the switch". These are of course very difficult questions to which there are no solutions yet.
What I have tried to illustrate is the importance of our unrestricted right to life and, indirectly, right to death. And I have questioned why we have the right to committ suicide when we are "healthy", and deprived of that same right when we happen to be "disabled". Once again I would like to stress the importance of discussing this matter with those we have closely around ourselves and who might be concerned when it is time; it will certainly make things a little easier if we know and respect each others' stands when reality hits us the hard way.
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