The Legalization of Euthanasia: The Case of The influence Chantal Sebire

Imagine a person goes to the doctor and finds out that he or she has inoperable or advanced stage cancer, AIDS or some debilitating disease like Lou Gehrig’s or Multiple Sclerosis. Death is an inescapable fact of life, but in scenarios with cancer, AIDS and other fatal diseases, it is closer and might be more painful than one hopes. Recent developments in Belgium pertaining to the legalization of euthanasia in terminally ill children , as well as the coverage of the case of French citizen Chantal Sebire, who was s suffering from esthesioneuroblastoma( a rare, incurable cancer of the nasal cavity which would progressively damage her brain and eventually kill her) remind us of the topic of euthanasia . Due to her condition Chantal Sebire lost her ability to see, her sense of taste and smell were significantly impacted. After her plea to allow euthanasia was denied by French government, she was found dead two days later. Autopsy revealed “fast acting barbiturates in Sevier’s system three times the lethal dosage” (Townsend 7).

Cases such as of Chantal Sebire, when people resolve to take their life using the means available, make religious, legal and medical community deliberate on the problem of euthanasia and reminds the state of the urgency of statutory regulation of euthanasia. Their primary dispute around euthanasia is about the value of human life. While medical science advances allow maintaining biological functions and postponing death by working in a regime of a controlled process of dying by taking the choice of time and manner of death out of ill patient’s hands (Yount 11). However, availability of euthanasia gives the control to the dying person.

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