LETTER: The assisted suicide debate

In response to “Assisted suicide vetoed” (June 6 Review-Journal) and Victor Joecks commentary June 7:

I have been opposed to assisted suicide law all along - but not for the reasons you might think. It is beyond hubris for the government to even think it has the ability to grant me a right which, by nature, I already possess. I own my body. It is not owned by the state, the courts, the church, public policy or even my relatives.

Think back to the unfortunate end-of-life situation in the Terri Schiavo case and the unnecessary additional pain and suffering caused by the selfish intervention of the parents and more than a dozen court filings. Which, in the end, they lost.

The government, correctly, sits back and blithely allows us to gradually destroy our bodies with drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, unhealthy foods and lifestyles and Lord knows what all else. But here the government draws a line? And yet a “Do Not Resuscitate” order is somehow acceptable and enforceable?

I am, fortunately, in good health, and suicide is not on my horizon. But should I or a loved one ever face an unresolveable end-of-life condition, I am going to make it happen by any means available or necessary — with maybe a little help from my friends — and Big Brother be damned. To borrow a phrase from another argument: My body, my choice.