Check out this excellent article from one of my favorite pro-life writers, Mark Pickup, over at Catholic Lane on something I have talked about many times here on my own blog: the selfishness that fuels the culture of death.
The push for assisted suicide is the natural conclusion of personal autonomy gone amuck.
Gloria Taylor wants assisted suicide for herself which is different from suicide because it obviously requires assistance — a coarsening of some other person’s conscience. The eyeless “I” of assisted suicide1 does not consider the consequences to others.
Autonomy is diametrically opposed to community. The natural conclusion to unfettered autonomy is the right to even self-destruction. That is what is being considered in the BC Supreme courtroom as I write these words. Acceptance of the autonomy of suicide (assisted or otherwise) is to reject the interconnectedness of community. It proclaims with a final shout and sneer, “I am my own island!”
He also addresses the ridiculous idea that suicide is a “dignified” death:
A truly progressive and compassionate society is concerned about life with dignity – especially for those who do not have it. Death with dignity is not an event, it is the natural conclusion of having lived with dignity. Dignity is not achieved by withholding water and food or injecting poison into a person’s bloodstream when they are at their lowest point. That is not dignity: it is profound abandonment! We have a right to expect the best palliative care and pain management.
Related post:
Assisted Suicide: the Musical
Visit Mark’s blogs:
http://markpickup.org
http://www.humanlifematters.org