Swiss Assisted Suicide for the Mentally Ill

I am published today in the First Things blog about the Swiss court ruling permitting assisted suicide for the mentally ill. I point out that the Dutch Supreme Court issued a strikingly similar ruling more than ten years ago and that there is advocacy here in the USA for “rational suicide” among some mental health professionals. The gist of my argument: “No one should be surprised by the Swiss ruling. The two weight-bearing ideological pillars of euthanasia/assisted suicide advocacy–a radical individualistic notion of ‘self-ownership’ and the deemed propriety of killing as an acceptable answer to the problem of human suffering-virtually compel this result. After all, many people suffer more intensely and for far longer than people who are dying. And, if choice is the be all and end all of personal freedom, then who can gainsay a suffering person’s decision to die? Hence, rather than being a radical extension of assisted suicide ideology, the Swiss court decision is simply its logical outcome.”