Et ceteras Bring on the euthanizers Beezer's dissent
BRING ON THE EUTHANIZERS Court-assisted suicide/' last issue's editorial (March 22,1996), tried to convey the startling nature of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals's March 6 decision:...
...The correlative issue of whether terminally ill loved ones ought to be allowed to commit assisted suicide is likewise one of the most difficult, divisive, and heart-wrenching issues facing American society...
...An excerpt follows: BEEZER'S DISSENT "The issue of whether mentally competent, terminally ill adults have a constitutionally protected right to commit physician-assisted suicide is one of the most difficult, divisive, and heart-wrenching issues facing the courts today...
...the latter is a moral question for the society as a whole...
...The latter requires us- all of us, not just judges-to engage in a soul-searching dialogue about our collective morals...
...The former is a constitutional issue for the courts...
...In their place are a host of diseases that cause a slow deterioration of the human condition....This change has forced us to step back and reexamine the historic presumption that all human lives are equally and intrinsically valuable...
...perhaps it is not even suicide...
...Viewed less charitably, the reexamination may be interpreted as a mere rationalization for housecleaning, cost-cutting, and burden-shifting-a way to get rid of those whose lives we deem worthless...
...However, the opinion of Judge Robert R. Beezer, dissenting from the majority opinion, which may or may not be Judge Beezer's "best ever," has the good grace to articulate much of what is at stake in the issue of physician-assisted suicide...
...This issue we, the courts, need not-and should not-decide...
...Whether the charitable or uncharitable characterization ultimately prevails is a question that must be resolved by the people through deliberative decision making in the voting booth,...or in the legislatures...
...The two issues are not the same...
...Given the tremendous advances in twentieth-century medical technology and public health, it is now possible to live much longer than at any time in recorded history...
...BRING ON THE EUTHANIZERS Court-assisted suicide/' last issue's editorial (March 22,1996), tried to convey the startling nature of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals's March 6 decision: physician-assisted suicide is o.k...
...Viewed most charitably, this reexamination may be interpreted as our struggle with the question of whether we as a society are willing to excuse the terminally ill for deciding that their lives are no longer worth living...
...As well, the editorial lamented Judge Stephen Reinhardt's eagerness to collapse all moral and medical categories surrounding care of the dying-the very means by which patients, physicians, and families have guided their decisions in the final weeks and days of life...
...We have controlled most of the swift and merciful diseases that caused most deaths in the past...
...The Wall Street Journal (March 15,1996) ran an interview with Judge Reinhardt, in which he said proudly of his opinion, "I think this may be my best ever...
Vol. 123 • April 1996 • No. 7
