Assisted Suicide Heralds a Culture of Despair
Your editorial 'New York's Assisted-Suicide Mistake' (June 11) captures what many of us have experienced up close. My grandfather James Powell helped pass the nation's first 'death with dignity' law in Oregon, occasionally appearing in TV ads in support of the measure. Years later, after an agonizing battle with lymphoma, he drank a lethal dose of barbiturates, prescribed by a physician. I was there along with many family members, and while I remember my grandpa with overwhelming affection, his last act has always struck me as wrong. How to describe the feeling of watching your hero kill himself, being watched by his family, those ordinarily expected to protect him? I can't help but reflect on how there were hours left unlived, words left unsaid, kisses left unshared. We were poorer for his choice and so, I think, was he.
It is ironic that many people who oppose capital punishment, war and other state-sanctioned violence support euthanasia. Their ethic inevitably falls back on 'choice' and 'autonomy' as its ultimate visions of moral good. Never mind that these two things will inevitably be taken from us. The shape of our final days, months or even years are inexplicably valuable. They have the potential to enrich others' lives in ways we can't anticipate.
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