In dystopian literature, we often find that among the horrors that future holds is the premature termination of the ill and the elderly. We see this in 1984, in Brave New World, The Giver, etc. In the 2014 movie based on the latter book, the main character, Jonah, witnesses his father inject an ill baby with a substance that ends his life. Jonah’s voice over says, “They hadn’t eliminated murder. They’d brought it home. They just called it by a different name.” Though this line is meant to give us shivers, it only takes a quick glance around to notice that the present world is not so far from this dystopian reality.
In 2014, Belgium passed a bill extending the right to undergo euthanasia to minors with parent or guardian consent. Two years later, on Sept. 17, a minor was euthanized for the first time. No further information was released besides his age, 17, and the fact that he suffered a painful terminal illness and had repeatedly demanded to die before his time. As the family mourned, public figures released various statements amounting to the importance of the right to a dignified death, even for minors. To put it simply, a suffering 17-year-old boy asked to die, a team of two doctors and one psychiatrist, as well as his parents all agreed that would be the best course of action and all the while Belgian public figures applauded his right to choose.
The situation is tragic and incredibly sensitive, but it’s also sick. It is sick that a suffering child will cry out for help and those around him will agree that he is better off dead. This, however, brings to surface the whole problem of euthanasia. Euthanasia is based on the narcissistic, sentimental lie that life is only worth something if we are in no pain, if we not a burden to those around us and if we are able to accomplish something. Like the inhabitants of dystopian universes, the modern man is afraid of suffering, sickness and old age because he struggles to see the value of life in and of itself. Rather, life is measured based on how useful, accomplished and comfortable one is.
This, then, begs a significant question: what should life be? If the answer is, a series of painless moments in which our bodies are productive and we are independent, then euthanasia makes complete sense. That, however, is not what life is. We know that because we cannot in good conscience look a sick child in the eyes and say, “Your life is pointless.” We cannot in all honesty say to our grandparents, “you are useless and you’re better off dead.” A person, then, has to be worth something simply because they exist. This is impossible to recognize, however, if we don’t look at each other with a truly loving gaze.
Why choose life, then? Because sickness, suffering and disability do not define a person and their life; the simple fact that they exist does. Those things are uncomfortable, but I think instead of terminating what makes us uncomfortable, we should try to love and help as much as we can.
Letizia Mariani can be reached at mari8259@stthomas.edu