LEGAL POINTS OF VIEW Essays - Medical Ethics, Euthanasia

LEGAL POINTS OF VIEW PRO Life for a human being is not merely about breathing or having a pulse. A human life is about pursuing the goals and values that, according to one's own judgment, will make one's life enjoyable and worth living. In dire circumstances in which a person is unable to live the kind of life that he or she regards as worth livingand only the individual can make such a determinationit may be the case that remaining alive is a fate worse than death. Life is not merely about quantity; it is also, and more importantly, about quality. In a country founded on the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, most states nevertheless forbid a person to exercise these rights when the pursuit of happiness becomes impossible. This means a person in personal agony with no hope for a future of happiness legally must remain alive and suffer. That is a moral disgrace. As Maynard wrote in a widely publicized CNN.com op-ed: "I would not tell anyone else that he or she should choose death with dignity. My question is: Who has the right to tell me that I don't deserve this choice?" physician-assisted suicide as another "choice" issue, like abortion. Why isn't this issue about someone's right to decide his or her fate at the end of life? My argument is really a social-justice-oriented argument against the legalization of assisted suicide in our current health care context. And those last words are really important: in our current health care context. I think one important piece may be the number of uninsured Americans that we have in the country. The recent numbers that came out from the U.S. Census Bureau saw the number of Americans without health insurance rise to 15.8 percent - or 47 million people in our country. What that means - and what I argue - is that legalizing assisted suicide in the context where we have this kind of inequity in our health care system actually puts those who are uninsured at risk for reaching for assisted suicide for a financial necessity or out of some duress. AGAINST that lack of universal health care increases the risk that legalizing physician-assisted suicide will ultimately lead to abuses? 61 percent of whites with incomes over $100,000 supporting physician-assisted suicide, but you have 78 percent of minorities with incomes under $50,000 opposing assisted suicide. That argument goes like this: Regardless of whether or not - in the abstract - we could justify capital punishment for certain heinous crimes, in the current context of our society, which is shot through with racism and shot through with financial problems of representation in the courts, we can't justly implement it. Let's assume that in the next few years the United States moves from its current health care system to a European-style universal care model and everyone has access to health care. That takes out of play your big concern. At that point, should people still have qualms about physician-assisted suicide? One of the most interesting comments I found was by Dr. Rob Jonquiere, head of the Dutch Voluntary Euthanasia Society. He is a very strong advocate for these rights at the end of life in the context of the Netherlands, but when asked about what the U.S. ought to do, he basically said no. He said that in the U.S., where so many people are uninsured, you could not defend such a law. And this is from someone who is a staunch advocate for the right to assisted suicide and euthanasia at the end of life. And I think that really does set the floor below which we shouldn't go in the U.S In your book you take liberals and progressives to task for ignoring the role that religion can play in this discussion. Why do you think the left has excluded religious considerations on an issue like doctor-assisted suicide? Religious views got dismissed in the debate in a couple of ways that I find really unfortunate. The first one was by using language like, "You're imposing your religious beliefs on me on this issue." If you listen to the talking points of many of the supporters of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act and physician-assisted suicide, this is