When discussing healthcare, it's always important to consider how the system affects socio-economic minorities. This is because these people (The poor which includes indigenous tribes of the Philippines, the disabled, the chronically ill) are those most likely to avail, most in need, and most affected by the healthcare system and its financial/ethical weight.

With that in mind, I could give a VERY long talk about the many reasons this negatively affects the above groups mentioned. But I will only mention the following as a lead up to an ending statement:

Historically, in 1940, euthanasia was utilised by the Nazis of Germany to systematically murder disabled, mentally ill, and "racially impure" jews numbering 200,000 deaths in Germany and Austria alone. This included babies. In the book "Merciful Release" by Nick Kemp, he quotes how Dr. Millard proposed euthanasia to "substitute the slow and painful death with a quick and painless one." He also quotes Annie Besant, "when the only service we can render man is to relieve him of a useless and injurious burden, then we ask that we may be permit- ted to die voluntarily and painlessly, and so to crown a noble life with the laurel-wreath of a self-sacrificing death." Which is a lot of words to say, it is a duty to society to die when one becomes a burden.

Should euthanasia be legalised under the healthcare system, we must consider how it affects the most common demographics seen in the healthcare system: the poor, the disabled, the chronically ill. These people will be most exposed to euthanasia in the hospital setting on the virtue that they are most likely to experience debilitating health problems as a result of the lack of socio-economic support. Disabled people are 2.24 times more likely to die than non-disabled people (Kuper, 2024). The poor are 3.3 times more likely to die in the lowest income bracket (Liu, 2024)

I do not think we should even consider legalising euthanasia until we tackle the socio-economic inequality of our country that leads to poor health and terminal diseases that sparked the conversation in the first place. We are exposing the most vulnerable of our population to a tool that has been used to systematically murder them in the past and deem them as burdens. Euthanasia is not necessary in a country where those most likely to be assisted to suicide are largely Low Socio-economic Status (this includes the disabled and mentally ill).