Death as a Salesman

It’s going to be one of those weird workdays. In a few short moments I’m going to a hearing on “Perspectives on Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill.” In other words, euthanasia. I’m not sure what to expect. I’ve never really been involved in the euthanasia debate. Today I’m just going to take a bunch of notes. I’ll plan to actually testify when it comes before the legislature. I think “right to die” advocates want to use this hearing to convince the various disability groups to come on board with them. From what I’ve heard, disability groups are typically against euthanasia. Duh . . . It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why.

The biggest problem I have with “voluntary” assisted suicide is that it forces a judgment call on the worth of someone’s life. And when someone is afforded the “right” to decide the value of their own life (and a physician is sanctioned to help to end their life), it won’t be long before society as a whole begins to make judgment calls on the value of other people’s lives. And when you think about how subjective people can be in making judgment calls, it’s rather scary. Shall we bump-off grandma because she’s draining all of our resources (e.g., costing too much money to sustain)?

Or, equally bad, shall we embrace the trend in the Netherlands and euthanize terminally ill infants?

I wholeheartedly agree with Alan Keyes: “When we deny the sanctity of human life at any level, we deny it at all levels.”