[Sonart]

I think assisted suicide, as responsibly envisioned by Oregon and now California, is not only the right thing to do but a deeply moral thing to do. Modern medicine has accomplished some miraculous abilities to cure and save life, but in the process it has also accomplished an ability to keep life going - in some cases - far beyond what is compassionate. A physician swears to do no harm, but when a patient is already harmed beyond all remedy and continued clinical life is simply a descent into suffering and indignity, isn't it doing harm to deny relief from that suffering and indignity?

We are all going to die. When the fact of death is imminent, what harm is there to choose to reduce the suffering of it. After all, even Pope John Paul chose the manner of his own death, refusing to be admitted to a hospital that may have extended his life.

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