No easy answers on assisted dying

Re Assisted suicide too much like playing God,

Opinion July 18 As an Orthodox Jew, my first instinct is to agree with Rabbi Dow Marmur that assisted suicide should not be an option for anyone. However, this spring I watched, helpless, as one of my best friends died of bone cancer. As the cancer progressed and his bones started to break, he was in intolerable pain. We could not get through a conversation without him screaming in agony.

The only way to manage the pain was for him to be sedated most of the day. He eventually decided to stop his dialysis treatments, which brought an end to his suffering within a week.

Had my friend not had a “way out,” a means of choosing to end his suffering, he might have continued living in unbearable agony for months and months. What kind of quality of life would he have had in that situation?

I don’t believe that doctor-assisted suicide should be an option for the mentally ill or young people.

But seeing someone I love go through such horrible suffering tells me that there are no easy answers to this issue.

Jason Shron, Thornhill

Out of charity, I shall assume that Dow Marmur is unaware that his remarks on assisted dying are offensive to those who do not share his notion of a supernatural authority over human life.

It is unthinkable that, should Rabbi Marmur face a period of prolonged anguish, deterioration of mind and body, pain, confusion, loss of dignity before a foreseen death, he should be required to accept a medically induced termination of his life. It is equally unthinkable that I should be deterred from seeking such a conclusion. I shall not be “playing God,” since the term for me and many others has no conceptual relevance to invoke in a claim intended to circumscribe my choice to act in accordance with my beliefs and understanding.

It is not “compassion” that directs the opposition of “exponents of traditional religion” to some of the conditions proposed in legislation regarding assisted death but an insistence on suppressing values contrary to theirs.

G.A. Hamel, Toronto