Voice of euthanasia
Sir: In his article on the forthcoming legis- lation of voluntary euthanasia in Oregon ( The killing fields of Oregon', 19 Novem- ber), Alasdair Palmer quotes a Professor Rita Marker as saying, 'Do you think the solution to suffering is to kill the sufferer?' Presumably the professor would not use the word — an act which, like rape, most of us think of as taking place without con- sent — when asking her vet to put her pet to sleep. Why, therefore, does she deny to humans the euphemisms she would give to pets? In any case no doctor in Oregon will be permitted to kill anybody, only to meet a request from a terminally ill patient — and Only a patient — for a drug to bring his or her sufferings to an end. Mr Palmer also seems to think that the terminally ill can be bullied into a request for voluntary euthanasia. It is time that this hoary old myth be granted compulsory euthanasia or, better still, killed; firstly because the life force is so strong in us that it is virtually impossible to persuade some- one to die who wants to live, and secondly because no doctor, here or in Oregon, could fail to spot the non-medical reasons for such a request and refuse to accede to it. (In Holland where voluntary euthanasia Is permitted, many more requests for it are refused than granted.) `If euthanasia were available here and your mother was a candidate,' asks the naiive Mr Palmer, 'how could you convince her that you did not want her to sign up?' I wouldn't dream of attempting to. If she was terminally ill, in pain and distress, and death was what she wanted, I would do everything I could to support her; as I hope my children would do for me if and when the time comes.
Ludovic Kennedy
Ashdown, Avebury, Wiltshire
Previous page
