Question

points supporting euthanasia

Answer 1

One of the big arguments against euthanasia is that it’s irreversible: Once the patient is gone, we’ll never know if their unexpected recovery was just around the corner, or if they might have gone on to lead full and happy lives despite their illness. However, this argument ignores the data so hard it basically punches reason in the face. The fact is, in all nations where euthanasia is legal, it’s the near-exclusive preserve of the terminally ill. And, despite what hopeful evangelicals and daytime dramas would have us believe, terminal illness is usually exactly that: the final stop before death. In 1991, a Dutch report into euthanasia found that in 86 percent of cases, euthanasia shortened life by a maximum of a week and usually only a few hours. In other words, it was a last resort—an escape hatch used by patients in unbearable agony who would rather that agony ended now than in two days’ time.

Now, this isn’t to say that miracle recoveries never happen: They occasionally do. But the reason you hear about them is because they’re so statistically improbable. For the vast majority of patients, such a recovery is less likely than winning the lottery and getting struck by lightning in the same afternoon.