RIGHT TO LIVE VS RIGHT TO DIE: ASSESSMENT OF NEED FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF EUTHANASIA IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

When a person ends his life by his own act it is called “suicide” but to end life of a person by others through on the request of the deceased is called “euthanasia”. Sri Lanka is a country with 70% of Buddhists who believe that killing one’s self is a sin. Similarly in both Hippocratic Oath and Nightingale pledge, Health Care professional swore not to harm people intentionally. The debate on legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide has a broad range of participants including physicians, nurses, lawyers, politicians, and the general public. The concept is conflictual and despite its importance participants are poorly informed about the facts. The objective of the study is to identify the opinion of Health Care professional including Medical Officers and Nursing Officers as they observe and feel the agony of death of chronically or terminally ill patients in Health Care institutions. In this simple descriptive study it was aimed to assess the need for a physician assisted suicide. Data was collected by a self-administered questionnaire distributed among Nursing Officers of the Accident Service, National Hospital of Sri Lanka. Of the results obtained Majority of the participants were female (89%) and age group was 35–40 years (76%). Majority (80%) of them were aware about the concept of Euthanasia. 75% of them believed it is ethical. Whereas 66% of them knew it is legalized in Western countries. Among the nursing professional 87% of them mentioned that they themselves will accept Euthanasia if they are chronically ill. Finally 66.6% of them agreed that Euthanasia should be legalized in Sri Lanka. Even though the Euthanasia is absolutely incompatible with the Hippocratic Oath Nightingale pledge, law of the country and culture, the majority are of the view that it should be legalized with in Sri Lanka