[Mrs. Don-o]

I think I can see what you're getting at there, ClearCase, but I can't agree. Access of death-by-choice leads to insoluble ethical problms no matter how you look at it, and it's absolutely important not to go there.

My best and oldest friend --- in fact, the only friend I still have from way back in high school days --- has a daughter age 20: sensitive, intelligent, lovely, and right now as we speak, suicidal. Her dad, a lovable and very decent man, has veen struggling with depression and alcohol, on and off, al his life. Mama and papa are in New Orleans, Lovely Girl was in NYC where she just 1 month ago dropped out of college.

I have no doubt in my mind that Lovely Girl could have gone to your proposed clinic, asked for the Sayonara Pill, gone back 2 weeks later and gotten it, gone back to her room with the pill, a glass of sherry and a book of poetry, and been dead by now.

I think, in fact, that that could have happened to any of us. Very few people would last the 8 years from 9th grade to the undergrad degree, if we had a painless and perfectly reliable pill, and especially no way to trace that it was actually suicide (spare your parents, you know.)

As it was, Lovely Girl called her parents, her Mama got some free ar tickets from some kind friends (they're not moneyed people), Mama flew into NYC and helped Lovely Girl get her stuff packed up, and they flew back to New Orleans, arriving back home last night.

Lovely Girl no doubt has a hard road ahead, since she thinks she's a friendless failure, headed for lifelong diappointment because she's, in temperament, her father's daughter, she's nothing (no husband, no lover, no degree, no profession, right now no clear future), and it would simply the world for others, if she was off the cast of this dismal play.

But I think God is still the author and stage-manager of her life (the script is partly but not wholly up to her) and she will come to know better days; and will learn deep lessons from the worst ones; and will; bless others not even knowing she's a blessing.

"Oh!" You might say. "No of course, SHE should't get the pill. There would have to be criteria."

But what criteria? As soon as thee are criteria, somebody else is deciding, "THIS kind of person is worth survival; THAT kind of person is not."

No, Sociaety MUST assume life is always a value, especially for the imperiled and fragile.

Otherwise, it's thr axe for all, bereft and bereaving one by one.

[wagglebee]

But what criteria? As soon as thee are criteria, somebody else is deciding, "THIS kind of person is worth survival; THAT kind of person is not."

If we've learned ANYTHING from the culture of death, it is that they will always expand their definition of which lives are "not worth living."

[ClearCase_guy]

Good points. Although I do put my toe in the water once in a while to explore a “broadminded” view of things, I would rather remain a pro-life absolutist. Thanks for helping me see that it is the best position.

[trisham]

I also know someone is currently suicidal, but she is much older, and having serious financial and marital problems. A year ago, as a result of these issues, she had developed a serious drinking problem, and had a TIA. She recently denied to me that she was suicidal, but then a couple of weeks later confessed to me that she had lied. I'm very worried about her, particularly since she has not returned my last two calls. She also told me that she is deeply ashamed of all of this, which is why she concealed it from me.

People make mistakes. Suicide is a mistake that cannot be undone.