I think the answer evident. Some of us do things we know to be wrong, but have convinced ourselves to be necessary. When we do, we look for means to justify actions. In the case of euthanasia, there are real proponents and there are allies. What I said about justification applies mostly to allies. Driven by hardcore proponents, the more squeamish feel they must go along or look the fool. I don’t believe there is as much support for euthanasia anywhere as much as proponents pretend. If you were to hold a referendum on it, you’d get a resounding defeat and proponents know it. Instead, they devise straw polls, produce media articles, and become supposedly neutral ethical “experts” in a field they, themselves, have concocted.

I am a chronic pain sufferer and I have been in a state where, had some mercy-mercenary offered to ‘pull my plug’, I might have taken it. It has only been the one time, but the experience has opened my eyes to the power of panic in the face of persistent pain. People at the end of life and those in unrelenting pain are vulnerable to charlatans for whom euthanasia is some kind of cause or service. This is a door through which you can pass but once. You are dead and cannot answer whether this is deliverance or a crime. The ethicist pronounces satisfaction in your name and walks away clean. No amount of expertise or impressive degrees can make him an expert on death or dying, yet he has this enormous say in your demise.

People think this is a new phenomenon because medicine prolongs the lives of those who a century ago would die. But, the same argument was made then, as now, and can be read in our law books and ancient writings. We have struggled with it as long as men have had it in our power to alleviate suffering. But, we keep coming back to the same answers. G-d gave us life and, until someone else can give it back, no one can dictate our deaths.