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Editor:
After reading Kristen Roberts' column ("Supreme Court must allow state bans on active euthanasia," Oct. 10), I am confused. Does she respect life, or doesn't she?
The question that first needs to be asked here is: who should decide when life is over? The person living the life, or the government, in its ever-expanding role as father figure, protecting us from those who would harm us, even if the perpetrator is us.
Kristen shows a remarkable lack of knowledge of the actual situation for someone with such a strong opinion. For instance, she dismisses what Jack Kevorkian does, by ignoring the entire process and focusing on his "macabre habit" of leaving the patient at the hospital. The process is quite long and involved, and not so cavalier as Kristen would have us believe.
First of all, Kevorkian does not seek out patients. They seek him. Then comes many months of counseling, in which every aspect of life and death is discussed. A video is then made, in which the patient expresses his/her desire to end his/her life, and the reasons for it. After this process, the patient is left alone with a machine that humanely and quietly ends the person's pain and suffering and their life. That's right, the patient ends his/her life. There is no coercion involved. While I'd like to see a more institutionally-based system in place, until that happens, Kevorkian's system is quite humane and dignified.
I would also like to address the last paragraph. In it, Kristen states that "those reaching for active euthanasia are asking for help in living." This is absolutely wrong when it comes to terminally ill patients. What they are asking for most often is a little bit of dignity, and the right to decide when their time has come. Your plea that "we can help them, and we should," shows a misplaced moral imperative. I challenge you to tell an 85-year-old woman, who knows death is nearing, and is in exquisite pain, both from her disease, and from the drugs that are supposed to be controlling her pain, that she doesn't really want to die. What do you think her answer will be?
Milton R. Shook Jr.
political science senior
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