Should Congress amend the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to say that using controlled substances to assist suicide is not a legitimate medical purpose even when it is requested by terminal, depressed, handicapped, dependant people and others living “hopeless” lives?
Yes! Absolutely yes- even when it is requested by the suicidal person! The state tells whole classes of people that their lives are not worth living when it fails to oppose or curb physician-assisted suicide (PAS). IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SAY that some lives are not worth living without saying that others sharing their characteristics/traits DO NOT have lives unworthy of life.
We expend incredible resources to prevent CERTAIN PEOPLE from committing suicide-like a relative who was student body president, homecoming king, track star and etc… We’d do anything to stop THEIR suicides. . But, if you don’t have long to live, aren't autonomous, don't enjoy life and feel burdensome, then we understand that YOU'D want to kill yourself. Instead of intervention, we’ll test you to be certain that you mean it! What makes the one more worth living than the other? How do we agree that the one life is less worth living without saying that all others like him/him or her don’t have worthwhile lives?
The state must oppose that kind of bigotry and any suggestion that there is any such thing as life unworthy of life. It must oppose this idea even when people who want to kill themselves judge their own lives to be life unworthy of life. The government cannot agree with citizens that their own lives are not life worthy of life without jeopardizing others. Once the sanctity of life is lessened/denied for one person or group, the right to life for the rest of us becomes negotiable.
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