A Canadian woman with MS traveled to Switzerland with her husband for assisted suicide. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has demanded a legal investigation. I doubt that will happen, but I post this story because I want y’all to look at the way in which the reporter romanticized family support for the suicide (don’t any family members oppose their loved ones’ suicides any more?), but most particularly, for us all to ponder the attitudes expressed in the comments section.
Elizabeth McDonald, age 38, was not terminally ill. She was disabled and depressed. (Depression is caused by MS in some cases.) But the fact that McDonald was not dying matters not a whit to the readers commenting on the story. And of course it wouldn’t. If one believes that killing (whether of self or by others) is an acceptable response to human suffering, then terminal illness has absolutely nothing to do with it. Moreover, the comments indicate a trend I have noticed in the last decade that among general society the “better dead than disabled” meme is growing increasingly strong—which chills the blood of disability rights activists who see disabled people in the cross hairs of the entire movement. And, of course, the reporter never bothered to contact disability rights spokespersons or suicide prevention professionals about the impact of stories such as this on disabled people generally or people with MS, specifically. Typical of the genre.
So, let’s can the smoke and mirrors arguments about assisted suicide being limited to the terminally ill in irremediable suffering, and have an honest debate. The real issue is a “right” to suicide for whatever reason people determine that they want to check out—so long as the desire to die is not transitory. This is sometimes called “rational suicide,” about which I have written on several occasions, including here in the NRO. (Along these same lines, recall the post from the other day about The Economist seeming to advocate prevention primarily for the “confused, temporarily depressed or in need of sympathetic attention,” but only equivocally for those with a “determined” desire to die. )
Some will disagree, but to me, widespread support for suicide in the face of illness and disability is a symptom of a growing disintegration of mutual cohesion and caring in society. The new attitude seems to be, “If you want to die, go ahead and die. It’s none of my business,” which masks as respect for “choice” but is actually a form of abandonment. If this attitude continues to proliferate, it is going to be increasingly difficult to be a dependent person in society.
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