A new discussion in Russia: Is Euthanasia acceptable?

Vladimir Simonov RIA Novosti Moscow

A crime committed in Rostov-on-Don has become arguably the most widely debated criminal case of recent times in Russia.

Two minors, Marta Shkermanova and Kristina Patrina, killed their paralyzed neighbor Natalia Barannikova. It was apparently a tortuous procedure. The girls initially tried to insert an empty needle into Natalia's vein to block the flow of blood with an air bubble. After failing to do so, they started strangling the ailing woman with a rope and finally succeeded.

The amazing point about the case is that the murder was committed with the mutual consent of the under-aged killers and their victim. After a car accident, Natalia suffered from terrible pain, lost interest in life and asked Marta, her 14-year-old sick-nurse, to help her die. The girl, in turn, asked her friend, 16-year-old Kristina, to assist her in carrying out the ailing woman's wish. Together, they committed an act that later was declared the first registered case of euthanasia in Russia.

Initially, the judges in Rostov were flabbergasted. The Russian legal system does not recognize the notion of "mercy- killing." Moreover, the 1993 law On Health Care of Russian Citizens strictly prohibits the practice of euthanasia in Russia. To the judges' relief, investigators discovered an important detail that allowed them to clarify the circumstances and transform the entire procedure into a traditional crime case: Natalia Barannikova paid the girls to kill her. She let them have all her jewelry. After the murder, the girls pawned 11 pieces of jewelry for 4,750 rubles and thereby forfeited their status as "mercy-killers."

The whole story turned into a banal case. Judges could now easily determine the motive "to enter a conspiracy to kill a disabled person." Such was the verdict that sent Marta and Kristina to a juvenile correctional facility for four and six years respectively.

Unexpectedly, the case caused an explosion of public discussion about euthanasia in Russia. The country suddenly remembered thousands of terminally ill persons who suffer unbearable pain, and openly voiced an opinion that earlier was a taboo: These people can be helped, as we can bring an end to their suffering by granting their death wishes.

According to social surveys conducted by TV Channel One and various Moscow newspapers, more than 80 percent of Russians support the legalization of euthanasia.

Such legislation exists in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and in the American state of Oregon.

Russian sociologists and doctors believe that the interest in this phenomenon reflects a clash of various psychological patterns dominating the public mind at present. Above all, this is anxiety caused by the merciless and rapid destruction of the old Soviet lifestyle to which older generations were accustomed.

"Euthanasia became the focus of discussion when people started to feel vulnerable and defenseless," says Tatyana Dmitrieva, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and director of the Moscow Scientific Center of Social and Criminal Psychiatry.

In other words, the growing interest in euthanasia reflects a fear of becoming helpless.

Russians are also attracted to the notion of euthanasia because Russian society lacks such an important element of any developed society as "the culture of death." People simply do not know how to part with this life in a dignified and civilized manner. Hospices, or special hospitals for the terminally ill, which have long existed in the West but appeared in Moscow, Rostov-on-Don and some other Russian cities only a year or two ago, serve to fill this gap.

Curiously, the emergence of the first hospices in Russia was met with stiff resistance. The philosophy of natural dying "with a smiling face" and looking at relatives and medical personnel collided with artificially optimistic ideology of the Soviet regime.

One of the precepts of the Moscow hospice, written in its Charter somewhat contradicts the notion of euthanasia, "You should not expedite the process of dying." This formula reflects the current, mainly negative attitude of Russian medicine to the legalization of "mercy-killing." According to many prominent medical scientists, the attitude "it is easier to end life than to cure the disease" demoralizes doctors. Professional medics believe that euthanasia can be legally applied in certain, strictly determined cases. However, it is unacceptable as a national system.

The attitude of Russian Orthodox Church towards euthanasia is even more intolerable. Russian theologians insist that only God is the Ruler of life and death; therefore, they consider attempts to legalize euthanasia as "morally unacceptable acts." The chapter on the problems of bioethics in a document The Basics of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was adopted by the Bishops' Council in 2000, defines euthanasia as "a form of murder or suicide depending on whether a patient participates in the act or not." In the latter case, the sinful nature of the act is even greater and it deprives the deceased of the right to be buried according to Christian tradition and to have a liturgy at the burial.

Nevertheless, secular Russia is continuing to discuss the legalization of "mercy-killing." And, as in many other countries, there are always people who use the noise of discussions to secretly help those who suffer to voluntarily end their lives.