Comprehensive Argument on Euthanasia
Comprehensive Argument on Euthanasia
The movement for choice in dying is dedicated to the view that there are at least two forms of suicide. One is 'emotional suicide', or irrational self-murder, in all of it complexities and sadness. Let me emphasize at once that my view of this tragic form of self-destruction is the same as that of the suicide intervention movement and the rest of society, which is to prevent it wherever possible. I do not encourage any form of suicide for mental health or emotional reasons. Nevertheless, life is a personal responsibility and we know some people are so tormented that they cannot bear to live. In such circumstances, understanding is called for.
I believe that there is a second form of suicide -- justifiable suicide, which is rational and planned deliverance from a painful and hopeless disease. I don't think the word 'suicide' sits too well in this context but we are stuck with it. I have struggled for twenty years to popularize the term 'self-deliverance' but it is an uphill battle with a news media which is in love with the words 'assisted suicide' and 'suicide.' They are headline grabbers. Also, we have to face the fact that the law calls all forms of self-destruction 'suicide.' Additionally, all medical journals today refer to 'assisted suicide' in their papers.*
Let me point out here for those who might not know it that suicide is no longer a crime anywhere in the English-speaking world. (It used to be in many places, punishable by giving all the dead person's money and goods to the government.) Attempted suicide, which hundreds of years ago in Europe was punishable by execution, is no longer a crime. Do not confuse this decriminalization with health laws where a suicidal person can in most states be forcibly placed in a psychiatric wing of a hospital for three days for evaluation.
But giving assistance in suicide remains a crime, except in the Netherlands in recent times under certain conditions, and it has never been a crime in Switzerland and Germany, although the taboos there are strong. The rest of the world punishes assistance in suicide even for the terminally ill; although the American State of Oregon recently (l994) passed by citizens' ballot measure a limited physician-assisted suicide law. After court battles initiated by the pro-life movement, the Oregon law took effect at the beginning...