Voluntary Euthanasia 1

Dear Sir,

In reponse to Dr Peter Beahan ('Nazi parallel fallacious', letters 5/2/2018) of 'Doctors for Assisted Dying Choice', this matter needs to be resolved on the basis of clear principle.

Dr Beahan defends a process which usually involves the terminating of a dying person's life at a moment of the person's choice by a lethal injection administered by medical personnel.

The act of termination is a deliberate one which, because it is deliberately intended by the dying person, becomes an act of assisted suicide.

Suicide, regardless of the circumstances and its timing, is self-murder. So, medical personnel involved, would render themselves complicit in an act of self-murder.

Compassion may be offered as an excuse, but the nature of the act does not change. It is still murder.

The Divine Commandment, "Thou shalt do no murder", serves to indicate the inadvisability of ever choosing suicide for oneself, and calling upon others to be complicit in your own self-murderous act.

The basic principle involved, is that everyone's life is inviolable, and may not be deliberately violated, even by oneself.

Yours sincerely,

Alan Mitter