Shu Yue (www.china.com.cn): It's hard to discount the bottom line that from a legal perspective, euthanasia is a violation of individuals' right to life and those who practice it could be held accountable for murder.

From an ethical perspective, however, euthanasia is still a controversial topic. Many Western scholars hold that three principles must be kept in mind with respect to an individual's life. First, the sanctity and protection of life always comes first, no matter the other considerations. Second, when the very act of living entails intolerable pain, then individuals may forfeit their right to life. Last, individuals' personal will should hold prominence, and they should always have the freedom to make choices in matters concerning their own lives.

Particularly in some extreme cases, there exists sufficient justification for euthanasia to be carried out. For example, situations in which an individual can no longer tolerate the pain he or she experiences on a regular basis and is unable to face the desperation of being unable to recover.

Thus, there is no lack of support for the legalization of euthanasia under certain circumstances, so that terminally ill patients can be allowed to expire peacefully, and their family members can be saved the misery of watching their loved ones being tormented by unendurable pain.

However, the legal system must not only listen to the voices of the few, no matter how persuasive or heartrending their argument, but also take into consideration other social realities, particularly the common awareness of life among the general public.

Wang Kaiyu (www.xinhuanet.com): Instead of euthanasia, family members, medical institutions, charity organizations and particularly the government should pay more attention to fulfilling their obligations and responsibilities in their attempts to relieve terminally ill patients from daily suffering.

Owing to insufficient medical insurance coverage in today's China, too often, patients are forced to actively cease their medical treatment for fear of unaffordable medical bills. Given this, if euthanasia was legalized, the negative effects would be unimaginable in scope and severity.

Right to die

Hu Yong (Legal Daily): There have been longstanding debates on whether or not euthanasia should be legalized. The worries of those standing in the "no" camp mainly lie in the possible occurrence of passive euthanasia, in which dying patients are deprived of medical treatment and no efforts are made to extend the patients' life, in effect, ending it. In China, passive euthanasia is responsible for a small, yet nonetheless considerable, proportion of patient deaths in big cities. However, owing to differences in the understanding of this issue, and also vague legal definitions as regards the particulars of euthanasia, those who support or facilitate the implementation of euthanasia are punished to varying extents. There is no clear legal statute specifying how such people should be dealt with.

Euthanasia is a sensitive issue intertwined with the right to life and that of being able to live in dignity, as well as legal and ethical concerns.

In its present form, it is arguable that the practice of euthanasia infringes upon people's right to life and violates the Criminal Law, but underlying this behavior is the intention to deliver agonized patients from the physical and mental tortures visited upon them by incurable diseases. Actually it demonstrates a caring attitude toward terminally ill patients.

Judicial authorities should no longer turn a blind eye to euthanasia, given that reports on this issue are being encountered more and more nowadays. It has been suggested that on the precondition of establishing specific regulations and effective approval procedures, particularly on passive euthanasia, the process of legalizing euthanasia should be gradually inched forward. Then, based on new developments regarding the issue and the public's feedback, the relevant laws and regulations should be continuously amended.

Patients qualifying for euthanasia should be required to provide proof of suffering from incurable diseases, on the brink of death and unable to bear the burden of physical pain associated with their conditions. In addition, their conditions must be carefully assessed and confirmed by clinical doctors, medical authorities and judicial bodies. The applicants, with the exception of babies or infants, who will naturally be represented by their legal custodians, must be the patients themselves, so that it will be ensured that the desire for euthanasia represents the patients' own will.