Assisted “Suicide” – Merciful Release or a Slippery Slope?

Dr. Kervorkian considers himself to be an Angel of Death (not of the Mengeles variety).  He thinks he is doing those who suffer a favour by helping them to leave their mortal coil.  Hm.  Interesting. I won’t say there isn’t any positive in what Kervorkian is doing: who wants to live in chronic, debilitating pain?  Who wants to live disabled and unable to enjoy life?  There are as many reasons for committing suicide as there are for clinging to life, I should imagine. watch eye to eye: assisted suicide CBS

91-year-old Charlotte, a grandmother living in Southern California, once designed suicide kits that she sold for $60.00 US on the internet.  She wasn’t making big bucks: she claimed she made the kits because she “cares about people.” Without being aware of it, she fully ascribed to Kervorkian’s philosophy. watch suicide kit

However the state of California outlawed Charlotte’s sale of the device by claiming Charlotte was advertising the kit as a medical solution to a medical problem, and since she had no medical qualifications her claim was false.

The debate about assisted suicide is an arduous one. There are two ethical problems with euthanasia:

1. “putting down” a person is in itself an emotionally difficult act that may cause postmortem depression and trauma in surviving loved ones  watch amazing! man saves female suicide jumper
2. relatives who are eager to receive their spoils from an elderly person’s will, or to relieve themselves of the latter’s care,may covertly or overtly persuade the sick that he or she is a burden.  This type of euthanasia is not voluntary: the “suicide” may opt for assisted suicide simply out of guilt.

We don’t like to consider that such people exist in the world, but they do.  There are people who abuse the elderly; surely there must be people who wish for their parent or grandparents’ premature demise? It is this sad reality that fuels the debate about the right to die. It won’t end easily (pardon that choice of words) anytime soon. watch right to die, assisted suicide, euthanasia