To me this was a well-written piece, and cogently makes a powerful argument. I tend to be supportive of right-to-die policies and positions, but this pointed ou

To me this was a well-written piece, and cogently makes a powerful argument. I tend to be supportive of right-to-die policies and positions, but this pointed out some of the very serious problems in how this is playing out. I'd think this was some alarmist dystopian fiction except that some of the cases being discussed are simply being cited as matters of fact. The case of the woman with multiple chemical sensitivities alone should be setting off all sorts of safety brake alarms, if not for the existence of any right-to-die law, then for strict scrutiny in how it is implemented. There is no reason anyone in her situation should have come to fall under this legislation. Perhaps something is being gravely mischaracterized in the press (always a serious possibility), and hers was a case of classic suicide, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I suspect that simply outlawing euthanasia and related practices wholesale is just as unethical as unregulated euthanasia without comprehensive guidance. There are a lot of ethical issues at play that society at large seems to have its head in the sand with, and they need to be worked out for everyone's benefit. I've come to believe that suicide and euthanasia are sort of canaries for problems in society at large — we tend to be in denial about the actual reasons both come about, and too focused on the endpoints per se. People never die in a vacuum, and even when they seek to end their own lives one way or another there is often someone else's hand involved collectively to some extent.