Dear
Editor,
I
would like to add a few reasons of my own for opposing physician-assisted
suicide.
I
believe that it is contradictory for us as a society to tell at-risk teenagers
and veterans suffering from PTSD that suicide is not the solution to their grief
and suffering when we turn around and hand a poison pill to those suffering in
other ways.
I
believe that the push to legalize PAS is not for the benefit of those who are
ill. After all, law or no, a person can
find a way to end his life if he really wishes it. It’s not like the person who takes his own
life has to worry about the legal consequences of such an action. No, physician assisted suicide is to make it
legal for family and friends to be complicit in taking the life of their
terminally ill loved one.
As
I understand, those who choose PAS will have their cause of death listed as their
underlying terminal illness, not the poison pill they willfully ingested. Such falsification is designed to avoid
nullifying death benefits on insurance policies. It is easy to see where this can be an
occasion of temptation and abuse.
[200
word break, the following will be included in my letter to legislators]
In
The Day’s February 24, 2015, article, “Medical, Catholic groups oppose bill to allow suicide drug prescriptions,” Tim Appleton of Compassion and Choices sought to downplay
objections that physician assisted suicide would in the future become a
mandatory aspect of healthcare: “A physician wouldn't be forced to write a
prescription, and a pharmacist wouldn't be forced to fill it.”
However,
such a statement is, in my opinion, either naïve or duplicitous. Such reassurances were given to opponents of
same sex marriage, and yet the news has had stories of bakers, photographers
and marriage planners who have had their livelihoods threatened by lawsuits
from same-sex couples who were denied service to their weddings.
Lastly,
I believe that the push toward such legalization is supported strongly by those
who want the United States to become a single-payer health care system. The problem with such a system is that people
cease to be the customers of the health care industry, and instead become
costs. Any business owner will agree
that customers are to be served, while costs are to be reduced. I believe legalizing physician-assisted
suicide is a step in the process towards euthanasia for those deemed unfit.
