Should assisted suicide become legal?
Thursday, November 1, 2012
The state of Massachusetts has an assisted-suicide bill, Q2, up for a vote in the coming election. It would make assisted suicide legal. I have just read two extraordinary short articles opposing this bill. One was written by a seriously disabled man, Ben Mattlin. It appears on The New York Times website (one of the Most Emailed pieces today) online on October 31, and the title is “Suicide by Choice? Not So Fast.”
The other is by Victoria Reggie Kennedy, of all people, and it’s excellent (and surprising). Her husband, Senator Edward Kennedy, died of a glioblastoma. The article appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on October 30, and the title is “Q2 Is Simplistic, Wrong.”
I highly recommend both of these brief articles to anyone interested in this intensely personal and fraught subject.
(I am sorry that I can’t provide links right now…don’t quite know how to use my new netbook at our bolt-hole in the Berkshires where we have lights, hot water, and heat! We know we are blessed and we are trying to find our less fortunate friends who don’t have power.)
