■ 15 December 2008 | 5:00 AM
No cause for sympathy
Re 'TV suicide agitates British debate,' news, Dec. 12: The AP report on the U.K. broadcast of Craig Ewert committing assisted suicide does not tell a balanced story.
The pro-assisted suicide lobby worldwide goes to great lengths to spin assisted suicide as a legal, loving and selfless act that releases terminally ill people from unbearable suffering, and that it is rarely used.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The laws governing assisted suicide abroad and here in the U.S. (Oregon, Washington state) allow for widespread abuse, little transparency, and are clearly stacked against the person seeking assisted suicide.
It is also a myth that assisted suicide only happens to terminally ill people. In several European countries, anyone (including those older than 12 in the Netherlands) may legally request assisted suicide for any reason, and not only for physical ailments. As long as two doctors agree that the client's situation is 'unbearable,' a very vague term, assisted suicide may proceed.
And while proponents of assisted suicide insist there is no slippery slope to the procedure's becoming on-demand for any reason for anything, bear in mind that last week, in the Scottish parliament, a lawmaker declared her intent to introduce legislation to make assisted suicide legal for children.
Mark Mostert
Virginia Beach
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Hey Ptown
you do realize the government has been involved all along don't you. I mean check the laws. Attempted suicide and suicide are illegal. Lots of luck prosecuting the ones that were successful. But since they are illegal, then if you "assist" someone in dying, you have broken the law and in some states may be found guilty of murder. You want the government out of it, then write all your representatives to change the laws.
Funny how no one wants the government to "tell them what they can and can't do" but at the same time want the government to pay for everything.
Ptown
Good letter, but read the Bible carefully about salvation. It is a gift from Jesus Christ but a gift must be received. It is not true that everyone who dies goest to a better place. For some, their suffering is just beginning. I wish it were not so, but it is. God has made it plain that people can *choose* to go off into eternity without Him, to their peril.
pro-life is a myth
No slippery slope here. Assisted suicide for children? We already have deliberate killing of a baby (Sun Hudson in Texas) because he was an inconvenience and an expense to the state. The supposed pro-lifers were mighty silent over the purposeful killing of a living baby.
First of all...
The state SHOULDN'T get involved, except that it ALWAYS does. Mary, you are correct, the government should stay out of a personal decision to end one's life. No one is asking for government assistance with these suicides, just that it stays out of the way. As for the moral aspect of this, I don't think that one can lose grace and forgiveness for becoming weak in the face of a debilitating or terminal affliction, and since the ultimate reward for dying is heaven, why is it not a positive thing to beat everyone else there? I don't believe Catholics and Jews are lucky enough to have this luxury, but I digress. The goal for those who are against assisted suicide on moral grounds should be to convince folks like me that we are idiots. Your energy is being wasted on those who are going to a better place, albeit not taking the most acceptable route. Would the same rules apply to those who are killing themselves slowly (smokers, drinkers, drug users) and those who enable them to do so? I say arrest all the folks at Altria for assisting in suicides!
Mr. Mostert
Thank you for a very comprehensive letter. There is so much to this slippery slope. It is something against which all pro-lifers must stand. I can hear the arguments now about "how dare I tell a depressed person who doesn't want to live that he must live?" and, of course, I am not telling him that at all. I am just telling him that the state will take no part in his suicide. He will have to figure out how to do that himself. The state should *never* be part of the suicide/killing scene.