Death, healthcare and the value of life

One of my favourite uncles passed away last month. He had been struggling with cancer for the past year or so, and had been terminally ill after suffering a relapse five months ago. He went through such terrible suffering in the last few months that death seemed to be his only relief.

As a mark of respect to him and his family, I decided I won't write my thoughts on it till after he had passed away. This post is not about my affection for my uncle, but about the kind of questions this kind of experience evokes in a human being.

My uncle's family has watched him wilt away day by day. They took good care of him and did everything they could to ensure he felt as comfortable as possible. Seeing someone they loved suffer for so long, it was only a matter of time before some of their thoughts went towards Euthanasia. I know this word might evoke a sense of alarm with some of you, but it is important to not allow our prejudices for or against it from preventing us to recognize the stark realities facing such patients.

Healthcare has advanced greatly over the years, with tremendous amount of breakthroughs in our understanding of the human body and therefore medicine. Some may argue that it has become quite a lucrative business to be in as disease is almost as certain as death. To put it bluntly, there is always a market for it.

However, given all that, there are still quite a few diseases which do not have a well-established cure. We have found ways to reduce the suffering of the people having terminal diseases, thereby keeping them alive much longer than they would live otherwise, but not enough surefire ways of curing their ailments. In some cases, it is generally known that it is only a matter of time before someone passes away.

One of my friends has quite a radical view on research in healthcare. He believes we should not be spending so much money on trying to find ways to keep really old and terribly sick people alive; they are not the direct contributors of growth and advancement of the civilization. They have done their part, thank you very much; its time to move on. He would rather see the money diverted from such research to something like education or eradication of children's diseases. He believes in the evolution of civilization in a certain way I guess. (It is my policy generally not to try and change a person's world view; in my experience, they usually have good reasons for it and it is seldom worth the fight)

One of the questions I have asked myself, confessedly only after witnessing my uncle's suffering first hand, is why we think human life is more sacrosanct than animal life? Take the case of Barbaro. Here was a thoroughbred who unfortunately got injured and never really recovered from it. His owners had no qualms deciding to have him euthanized. If we can allow this for animals, why can't we do the same for our own kind?

Maybe it is an inherent survival instinct in all of us. Maybe killing their own kind is not the way animals are wired. I wonder how other species feel when they face such a situation. Do they find it easy to let go of this inhibition and see the practicality of such a solution? Seems like a psychological problem to ponder upon. I will leave it at that.

PS: Just for the record, I personally have no issues with Euthanasia. In some cases, it is possibly the best we can do for the ailing person.