Euthanasia. Do Czechs care?
A Euthanasia – in the original Greek the word means help in suffering,
both medical and in the mind. The word now applies to the highly controversial
issue of enhancing death on the
request of a patient. Illegal in the Czech Republic, euthanasia became a
topic of discussion and a political issue some ten years ago. Ever since then
it has faded into the background, overshadowed by other events seen as
more urgent. Talking to a few citizens of Prague
about their opinion on euthanasia, I had the impression that many Czechs remain
undecided.
B Supporters and opponents of euthanasia among professionals agree in one
point. They both want to help dying patients. While supporters would prefer to
do so by putting suffering and pain to an immediate end, opponents opt for palliative care, not trying to
keep the patient alive artificially,
but trying to alleviate their suffering as much as possible. Under this
approach, patients are given painkillers and provided professional care at home,
in hospitals or hospices.
C Pavel Boček worked at Paediatric Clinic of Oncology at the Motol Faculty
Hospital for thirteen
years and has always been interested in trying to improve the quality of life
of his terminally ill patients. He agrees with euthanasia but only under
certain circumstances. “If we
are talking about euthanasia we should only talk about adult patients. I was
seeing a patient who was suffering from one kind of cancer. He had numerous
metastases in his body but his brain was clear. He was able to think about the
quality of his life and he was in great pain although he was getting some
anaesthetics.”
D “He was asking us, very directly, to stop his life because he could not
bear to see himself in such a mess and he did not want to see the cancer win.
He wanted to be the winner. From my point of view, we have first to ask the
patient himself, because he is the one we are talking about. We have to focus
on patients who want this to be done, who have a clear mind, and who have this
very specific request”, Pavel Boček added.
E “The main arguments were that doctors cannot decide that this patient
is going to die or not. But my opinion is that it is not the decision of the
doctor. A doctor is only a person who provides that”, says Pavel Buček
once nicknamed “doctor death” because of his views. He makes clear that he
would support legalisation of euthanasia but not before through discussion.
Euthanasia, just like the death penalty, is irreversible and it is necessary to rule out its misuse. People on
the streets seem to fear the same.
artificially – uměle
circumstance – okolnost
enhancing – urychlení
irreversible – nezvratný
to fade – vymizet,
vyblednout
to opt – zvolit
to overshadow – zastínit
undecided – nerozhodný
1) Read the article and match each of the headings to a paragraph.
1 Need to focus on
patients who want euthanasia
2 Approaches of supporters
and opponents
3 The does not decide but
provides help
4 Introduction
5 Pavel Boček and his
patient
2) Read the article again and answer the questions.
1 What is the article about?
2 What do supporters and
opponents of euthanasia say?
3 Who is Pavel Boček?
4 What does he think?
5 What does he say about
his patient?
3) Explain the following words.
1 painkiller
2 to alleviate the
suffering
3 cancer
4 patient
5 death penalty
4) Answer the following questions.
What is a death? What are
causes of death? What are types of death?
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