Some say "yes." Some depressed people wish they could end it all. Some people in good mental health look ahead to old age and debilitating illness and say, "I'd rather kill myself than go through that."
The popular wisdom among a number of my acquaintances seems to be that we each should have the right to end our lives when we see fit. Not only that, many folks say they would expect their doctors to help them end their lives when the time comes.
Given the prevalence of this idea, I was somewhat relieved to see the results of a recent AP-Ipsos poll in which 48 percent of those surveyed said it should be legal for doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication for the purpose of assisted suicide, but 44 percent said it shouldn't. That's a pretty even split on the morality of physician-assisted suicide. That's good news: There's still time to beat back the idea that physician-assisted suicide should be legal.
Let me hasten to say that I do not condemn people who commit suicide for any reason. I also should say I am in favor of letting nature take its course when the end of life is approaching, if that is the patient's wish, rather than applying heroic measures to extend life.
But I am alarmed about the widely accepted idea that physicians should help their patients kill themselves. I am troubled that suicide is seen as a reasonable response to terminal illness or disability. These notions spring from a devaluation of life that plagues our society and a terror of dependence of any kind. They spring from a culture that says people are only worthwhile as long as they're productive and self-reliant. And that scares me.
I lost both my sister and my mother to cancer. Their illnesses were lengthy, painful and debilitating. It was especially heart-wrenching to watch my sister endure tremendous pain from breast cancer that spread throughout her bones. She would break bones simply by turning over in bed.
Mom and Betty may have thought they'd rather be dead than endure their illnesses, but they never said so. Instead, they enjoyed life as they could and endured the rest with faith and courage. They also gave their family the opportunity to care for them and thus to grow as well. Those times were filled with pain as well as grace and love. Of course, I'd rather they were alive and well today, but given that everyone will die, and that most of us will be sick beforehand, I am grateful that we were able to be with my mother and my sister, to support them, to love them, and to learn from them in their final years.
When I think about being bedridden and unable to care for myself, I'm scared. But then I remember that I am not in charge of everything in my life, and I certainly won't be in charge of the end of it. I'm not supposed to be in charge of that. I didn't give myself life, and I choose not the end of that life I was given.
Instead of pushing for legal methods of physician-assisted suicide, why not band together as people of good will and offer the sick, disabled and dying the care, companionship and dignity they deserve? It won't leave blood on anybody's hands, and in caring for the sick and dying, we and they receive gifts beyond our imagining - gifts of love and wisdom and, believe it not, gifts of life.
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* CONNIE CLARK, an Episcopal priest and chaplain in Evanston, Wyo., welcomes comments at chaplconnie@yahoo.com. You may also comment by e-mailing religioneditor@sltrib.com.
