My life, my right to choose
Re: No One Really Wants Euthanasia, Barbara Kay, Feb. 4. Barbara Kay’s arguments against assisted suicide are manipulative fear mongering at its worse. As a compassionate person, I do feel for her. Yes, she has a right to choose to prolong her own death as long as possible and the law should protect her right. And if I was under her care, I would understand the profound pain she would be in if she was forced by my decision to let me go. But the law should also protect my right. I am not speaking from any idealistic motivation, or claim of moral high ground. I have just as much fear as she does, but a different fear. Why does she insist her fear trumps mine?
I agree the law has to be crafted carefully to avoid the slippery slopes. I do not want life and death judgments to be made by committees or relatives with ulterior motives. All I want is the right to decide for myself about me if and when I need to, and the right to have the compassionate help I may need if I decide to die gracefully.
I believe my life belongs to me; Ms. Kay argues in a heavy-handed
way it does not. If not me, then who? Gary Rose, Toronto. Why would the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario insist doctors be forced to refer for treatment that goes against their conscience? As MP Maurice Vellacott recently stated, there is “no other jurisdiction that currently allows euthanasia or assisted suicide imposes such an obligation.” Requiring doctors to act against their conscience and/or be complicit in an act they find morally reprehensible is a surely not a road we wish them to travel. If I knew my doctor could so easily leave his conscience by the side of the road when treating me for “A,” then how could I ever trust him when treating me for “B”?
When doctors signed up to become doctors, they did so knowing their freedom of conscience rights were sacred. Creating a policy that tramples on these fundamental rights is wrong and dangerous.
Patricia Maloney, Ottawa.