The Right to Die--or the Fear of Living?

The Right to Die--or the Fear of Living?

Early in July Roger Kusch helped Bettina Schardt, of Frankfurt, Germany, kill herself.  Schardt, 79, was not ill, nor was she dying--she simply didn't want to face living in a nursing home.  So rather than move there, she engaged Kusch, a German campaigner for assisted suicide, to help her die early.  She swallowed a fatal combination of chloroquine and diazepam, said "auf Wiedersehen," and died.  (NY Times, July 3, 2008)

Her suicide and Kusch's subsequent publicizing of the act set off a fierce national debate over the limits of the right to die.  In Germany suicide is not itself considered a crime, nor is helping someone commit suicide, so long as the act is not considered euthanasia.  But many Germans do not want to follow their neighboring country of Switzerland, where liberal laws have led to the commercialization of assisted suicide.  With all of the publicity attendant to the case, Kusch was, in effect, offering his services.  As one person put it, "We want to make it illegal for people here to offer 'suicide by reservation.'

We know that the Netherlands already has an open practice of euthanasia, and I wonder how many other nations will be moving in that direction.  I would not be surprised if our "Death with Dignity" act in Oregon does not spread in the U.S. and eventually travel the slippery slope to euthanasia.  I say this simply because of the economic constraints this country is experiencing now and will continue to experience ever more acutely as time goes on.

The fact is the 80 percent of the cost of an individual's medical care comes in the last year of life.  With our national budget way in deficit, with our infrastructure badly frayed, with our education system hurting, with foreign wars draining us dry, with energy costs sky-rocketing, with medical care way beyond the means of the average wage-earner--how will we be able to care for old, ailing people?  Of course old, ailing people of means will be served, as always.  But the others?  I can see that there could be counseling from medical professionals and from clergy to encourage the elderly to choose the ice floe solution, so to speak, so that resources might be spared for the young.  This choice will be seen as the ethical, the moral, thing to do.  (See the moving film "The Ballad of Narayama" for an 18^th c. cultural solution to aging.)

Perhaps, as one wealthy individual said to me upon the discussing the issue, "That would be OK--some people dying early, I mean.  Death is not a bad thing."  Well, no--especially if you have money and some choice in the matter.

Most of the individuals who chose the "death with dignity" option in Oregon since our law was passed have been single, as was Ms. Schardt.  She had never married, she had no family, and very seldom went out.  Perhaps, as the article points out, the lonely death of Ms. Schardt speaks more to the question of how Germany treats its elderly. 

Loneliness and alienation in old people is not confined to Germany, though, by any means.  Should people be "dying for lack of love alone," as the poet says?  We should consider what human values we wish to embrace as a culture and work towards supporting those values.  No one should die just because there is no one there, no one to care.   

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