To die or not to die, that is the question.

There is another debate getting ready to rage which I read about in (of all places) the most recent issue of Costco's instore magazine. No, it is not about Pacific versus Atlantic salmon, it has nothing to do with the shiny stainless steel icecream maker advertised on page 38; it is rather to decide whether or not assisted suicide should be made legal in Canada, joining the countries of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and the state of Oregon which have already passed this legislation.

I read the novel Amsterdam by Ian Mcewan in which two friends arrange for each other's euthanasia in that city, when neither of them is actually wanting their own deaths, rather each other's. It was a pretty good book.

When I was a volunteer at the T0r0nt0 Distress Centre in my younger days, I remember getting a call from a man who wanted to kill himself. In itself, that wasn't so unusual, we regularly got calls from suicidal people. The difference with this guy was that he was in his late 60's or early 70's, his family was all grown, his wife was dead, he was confined to a wheelchair, had several chronic conditions which rendered him in constant, untreatable pain, and he really felt that he had nothing left to live for and that he would rather die. By the end of our telephone conversation, he had convinced me that perhaps he was right, that he should be able to exit with dignity instead of languishing past the point when he could make such a decision for himself.

The people on the yes side of the debate argue for the dignity of the patient, they argue against the torture of prolonging the lives of people with incurable and debilitating diseases, and that a person who wants to die should be able to. The no side feels that legalizing suicide would open the door to abuses and exploitation of the disabled and elderly, and that it could create the society that Hitler tried to do.

I don't really know how I feel about this. My dad at one point made a "living will", wherein he requested that should he be hooked up to life support with no hope of regaining consciousness or if he was braindead, the plug be pulled. After seeing my aunt die hooked up to machines, I readily agreed to this. Death with dignity is very important to me. However, I wouldn't want to hurry the death of someone I loved, even if I knew they were in pain and misery. We always hope that they will improve. But perhaps I am wrong.

Anyway, I thought I'd throw it open for discussion. Here are some websites you can check out: The World Federation of Right to Die Societies, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, and Bill C-407 (first reading).

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