Why do we see suffering as virtuous?

Re: If Euthanasia Is A Right, Why Not For All?, Andrew Coyne, Oct. 18. According to Andrew Coyne’s summation of the plaintiffs’ case before the Supreme Court, “Current law affords the able-bodied a right that is denied to some disabled people, namely the right to kill themselves.” That is plainly false. Consider this analogy: Under current law, it is not illegal to get drunk in the privacy of your own home, granted one has a home and enough money to buy alcohol. It would be ludicrous to demand, in the name of justice, that some of those without the resources to get drunk in private should be assisted to do so.

Elmar J. Kremer, Toronto. Andrew Coyne’s excellent column reminds us that our culture treats death as almost a taboo. When it comes to death, we simply don’t talk about it or plan for it, never mind try to come to peace with it.

Death has always been a powerful tool of control and manipulation, used to justify and aggrandize the penitential benefits of sacrifice, suffering and hardship. Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote, “O death, the poor man’s dearest friend, the kindest and the best.” The longer the suffering, the purer the death. The “Dream of Gerontius,” a poem by John Henry Newman, envisions the soul becoming lighter and lighter as it endures pain and suffering until it is finally light enough to leave this mortal coil and float upward, worthy to see the face of God.

Nevertheless, whatever our vision or belief of death, it should not be dictated by a tribunal held in thrall by 2,000 years of man-made tradition. Surely, the time has come for us to discard the supposition that pain and suffering are good and virtuous things.

Catherine S. Nelson, Calgary.