Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Euthanasia is allowing people to die, or even commit suicide, sometimes with a doctor's help, because the person chooses that over a lingering or painful death. Euthanasia is a liberty question because the desire to die comes from the patient, however, if the decision is to let a person, particularly a deformed newborn or someone who is brain dead, die naturally, that is compassionate death. Compassion is subjective, and easily veers into moral philosophy; for example, if a brain dead person is allowed to die so that their organ's can be harvested, is that more or less compassionate?

Babies and compassionate death generate the most angst. There's a famous case in England where a doctor, who is one of the world’s specialists, thought a baby would be harmed by further treatment, and was allowing it to die. A judge was asked to decide but how is a judge more qualified in this matter than a doctor? The judge judicially decided it was up to the doctor. Making the decision even more controversial, Italy offered to take the baby and provide treatment. It caused an uproar among a lot of religious people, but was the baby left in God's hands by not being treated, or by a futile treatment, and which is more compassionate, or are neither?