Dear Editor:
Assisted suicide should be legal. Doctor-assisted suicide should be illegal.
You can learn how to kill someone in a few days. It takes seven years or more to become a doctor. Most importantly, doctor-assisted suicide goes against the doctor's primary purpose - to save life. No doctor should ever be accused of advising a suicide to provide an organ to another patient or to free a hospital bed.
This type of accusation could easily arise in a small community where people all know each other, and it could arise by the grapevine in any city.
In the background of the whole debate is a spectre. There were doctors who supervised the execution of the "unfit" under the Nazis. It's a matter of historic record. When dealing with life and death, things can get completely out of control. There was also a report that people were euthanized after Hurricane Katrina.
No doctor should ever have such doubts of his own actions. No doctor should ever say, "Did I do enough to help that person survive?"
They have enough to deal with when carrying out their lifesaving duties. Life ending is an entirely different thing and should be done by a different group of people - people such as relatives, retired doctors no longer working in the field, retired clergy.
The most important part would be the ability to tell the difference between temporary depression, and end of quality of life. The euthanasia specialist should have two things: a list of questions to ask to determine if it is a legitimate end of life situation, and the rudimentary knowledge necessary to kill someone without botching the job.
Parliament needs to allow assisted suicide, but it needs a bit of planning to make sure it is done right. Doctors should be written out of the plan. They have enough to deal with.
Until then, the courts will undoubtedly turn a blind eye to those doctors who practice euthanasia without announcing it. It's a crude method, and it needs to be replaced with something that works.
Albert Melenius, Burnaby
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