Euthanasia. Do Czechs care? - Text 3

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 doctor 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?

Adjusted to:

http://www.radio.cz/en/section/talking/euthanasia-do-czechs-care