I was reading National Review today while waiting for Hillary’s announcement and chanced upon this article at The Corner by Wesley Smith. The title – Assisted Suicide, a “Civil Right” for the Rich – was a suitable indication of what was to come, namely another lecture by those not facing their own imminent mortality to politicians and health industry professionals dealing with issues which directly affect those who are. In it, Smith quotes from and sends readers to an editorial piece by his wife, Debra J Saunders, at the San Francisco Chronicle.

The contents of this are, to put it mildly, rather over the top for a subject where even well intended people of faith often leap far beyond their professed small government beliefs. But what’s perhaps most offensive in this diatribe is the idea that assisted suicide legislation is somehow tailored for the wealthy, leaving the poor to be victims of death panels or whatever the rationale is these days.

The hearing room was filled with supporters wearing yellow Compassion & Choices T-shirts. Many talked about their determination to end their lives on their own terms. I often am struck by proponents’ — how can I put this? — affluence, assurance and sense of entitlement. SB128 is a bill designed to make suicide more available, palatable and friendly.

California has world-class medical care. This bill seeks to address a “First World problem,” noted Tim Rosales from the opposition. Rosales steered me toward Ken Barnes, a San Diego management consultant who used to be on the executive committee of the California conference of the NAACP. Barnes handily summed up SB128 supporters: They tend to be white, educated, affluent and able to navigate the health system. While they think they are “progressive,” they are as oblivious to the downside for “people of color and people who don’t know how to advocate for themselves.” They’re like white guys who don’t understand why black men are leery of police.

What’s possibly worse is the idea that this is all some vast plot to save money.. as if doctors are lining up waiting for the chance to push people toward death’s door, but the wealthy are somehow getting off easy.

Surely Hertzberg and the other proponents know that the state cannot stop people from committing suicide. More than 40,000 sad, desperate Americans do it every year. So Hertzberg must see it as a fit role for government to encourage suicide and change the face of medicine by giving doctors a license to prescribe intentionally lethal overdoses. In a world with premium medical care, that is dignity.

First of all, what we’re talking about when it comes to intentional overdoses of painkillers is not something new. It’s only “revolutionary” in terms of people discussing it in the open. This has not only been going on for the last century or more, but I can personally speak to two instances in just the past year where the subject clearly came up for people in my immediate circle. The most recent one was the parent of a friend who was in their late seventies and suffering from multiple tumors which were inoperable. The patient had been given a self-regulating morphine based painkiller “drip” which could be activated by pressing a button. Without getting into the delicate details, it seems that the maximum delivery level was either “accidentally” set too high or not regulated at all. The patient technically died of a drug overdose, but the obituary correctly said that they passed on from the effects of advanced stage cancer.

The point is, doctors do this. We don’t talk about it, but it happens. And it happens for doctors themselves far more often than for the patients they must offer every possible option to, no matter how desperate and hopeless. For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, I strongly suggest you read the essay, How Doctors Die by Dr. Ken Murray. It’s an eye opening experience.

The point here is that the types of legislation under discussion are not now, nor have they ever been about rules allowing doctors to kill off the poor or give some advantage to the well heeled. They are about options… options which are too often out of reach for some terminal patients because of Nosy Nellies who want to impose their own disapproval of the most private of things upon others through the public square. And for Wesley Smith’s wife I would offer one note of caution. Forcing someone to suffer to the last bitter moment because you want to save them from burning in hell is not dignity. It’s making yourself feel better at the expense of others.