L.A. Daily News columnist Bridget Johnson has written a splendid column pointing out some of the many flaws with legalizing assisted suicide. Here is a sampling:
Invariably, when society decides that some life is less valuable, less worth caring for, than other life, the results can be disastrous. Some “merciful” laws have descended into involuntary euthanasia as well, resting on the argument of keeping those humans around who would have an acceptable “quality of life.” After the Netherlands legalized euthanasia in 2000 for 12-year-olds and up, the Groningen Protocol was established to ensure doctors wouldn’t be prosecuted for killing infants they deemed not fit to live.
“My observations in the Netherlands persuade me that legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia are not the answer to the problems of the seriously or terminally ill,” wrote Dr. Herbert Hendin, executive director of the American Suicide Foundation, in Psychiatric Times.
“The Netherlands has moved from assisted suicide to euthanasia, from euthanasia for the terminally ill to euthanasia for the chronically ill, from euthanasia for physical illness to euthanasia for psychological distress and from voluntary euthanasia to involuntary euthanasia (called `termination of the patient without explicit request’).”
“Assisted suicide” is just semantics for a doctor prescribing the means to die versus the doctor administering the means to die. Regardless of the name, regardless of the method, the profession designated to care for the weakest crosses the line into doing harm.
As we remember friends who passed with grace, courage and unshakable dignity, let’s also remember this week to remind our legislators of their duty to protect the inherently dignified cycle of natural life and death
Johnson nails it: Being overdosed is so often called “death with dignity” by advocates and their media parrots, you would think that dying naturally is undignified. The only indignity is acting as if anyone has a life not worth living or protecting.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
