THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 19, 1994 TAG: 9412160033
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
Once again, incessant do-gooders who think they know better than anyone else have decided to inflict their moral code on others who deserve better.
Oregonians went to the polls last month and voted to allow terminal patients the dignity to choose to die peacefully with a physician's help, but so-called right-to-life groups have stepped in to stop the process. What gives them the right to choose for others?
Dignity is something my mother tried very hard to find while she died agonizingly of pancreatic cancer nine years ago, because U.S. laws disallow use of heroin for control of terminal pain, much less allowing her to choose to die with a controlled dosage of a barbiturate such as was going to be available in Oregon. She hated having no control of her situation, which only made her end more miserable than it needed to be.
Nearly three years ago, my father's heart and lungs finally gave out on him, forcing his confinement in a hospital while he awaited his inevitable death. He asked me to help him end his life, using any method that wouldn't get me in legal trouble, but of course I was completely helpless to do so. Nothing could ease his pain sufficiently, and he died in what he thought was a shameful manner - unable to control anything in his own life.
Let the right-to-lifers decide for themselves but not impose their sanctimonious moral code on others who deserve to be able to make their own choices. When they get everything else in their own lives right, then they can butt into mine and others' who don't want them there! That's true morality, if you ask me. Meanwhile, they should leave me and mine alone.
CHRISTOPHER L. NIXON
Virginia Beach, Dec. 8, 1994 by CNB