Re: The June 15 commentary ‘Assisted suicide is murder. Period’, by columnist Sharon Ryan.
Ms. Ryan is totally right when she states that suicide is murder, for the law of the land right now says it is a crime. Thankfully, this is about to change as assisted suicide will soon become legal in Quebec, and eventually the rest of the country.
Assisted suicide legislation seeks to increase human autonomy. People should have the right to decide what happens with their body, especially when making end-of-life choices. As it stands now, a suffering terminally-ill person is limited to the choice of sustained suffering via treatment, or stopping treatment to suffer for the last days/weeks/months of their existence.
When people like Ms. Ryan try to malign assisted suicide, they try to create this false notion of a future where seniors and the disabled are pressured and coerced to end their lives. When Bill 52 passes in Quebec, and eventually the rest of Canada, there will obviously be strict guidelines and limitations to end-of-life choices. Even Dr. Jack Kevorkian, when operating outside of the law, only helped terminally-ill suffering patients. I think eventually history will absolve Dr. Kevorkian.
Ms. Ryan's piece ends with a quote from the Bible, and while it's one thing to form your moral compass through a book, it’s completely another thing to curb another's rights based on stories from a time when the average lifespan was 30 years. If you don't wish harm on the dying, then let them pass in a way of their choosing.
Trevor Larson, St. Albert
