Q&A 1, First Answer

The basic form of my question is: Should a patient's friends and relatives have any say in whether the patient can be euthanized?
This is a question that I find very difficult to answer, and my views on it may change in time.  However, as of right now I think the answer is no - that is, the patient should, legally, be able to make their own decision about whether or not to be euthanized.  However, the friends and relatives should probably be guaranteed the right to spend at least a minimum amount of time to discuss the decision with the patient.

Two of the primary reasons that I had difficulty deciding on a point of view for this issue are the possibility of the patient using the option of euthanasia to coerce their friends and relatives into doing things they do not wish to do, and the possibility of friends and relatives guilting the patient into being euthanized.  Here are examples of these two possibilities:

An old woman has cancer, which will kill her in a few years but is not currently causing her any great distress - she is bedridden and confined to a hospital, but is in no pain.  Her son comes to visit her.  The two people have a good relationship except that he is gay, and she is vehemently opposed to homosexuality.  She says that if he does not divorce his husband and start looking for a woman to marry, she will ask to be euthanized.  He now has one of two options: either give in to her coercion and effectively ruin his life, or refuse to go along with her commands and then have to live with the guilt that he may have contributed in some way to her death.  Even if he thinks it through rationally and decides that ultimately it was her decision to die, and it is not his fault, it is likely that at least some residual feelings of guilt will linger due to his emotional attachment to her.

The second possibility begins the same way as the first, with another old woman with the same type of cancer.  However, in this case, she has a son who is a single parent with six children.  He is running out of money and refuses to get a job.  Any money he obtains he spends on alcohol.  The old woman's care in the hospital is expensive, and she cannot afford to give him any money.  He tells her that if she does not ask to be euthanized, his six children will starve.  Feeling as if she has no alternative (she cannot force her son to get a job or stop drinking), the old woman asks to be euthanized.

Both of these situations cause extremely negative consequences for at least one person.  However, I do not think that either of them justify denying people the right to choose whether to continue in a state of suffering or die.  Furthermore, the second situation would still be possible even if friends and relatives did have a say in the situation.  Ultimately, I think the best out of bad options is to allow people to make their own decisions in this matter.