X-Message-Number: 2779
From:  (David Stodolsky)
Subject: CRYONICS: AIDS suicides
Date: Tue, 24 May 94 14:34:16 +0200 (CET)

"Murder? Or Ultimate Mercy?"
USA Today (05/23/94) P. 8A;  Castaneda, Carol J.
     Prompted by fear, excruciating pain, and rage, an increasing 
number of AIDS patients are imploring family and friends to help 
them commit suicide.  Deliberate drug overdoses and plastic-bag 
suffocations occur quietly in the AIDS community.  "When your 
quality of life becomes such that there is no quality ... it 
seems a reasonable choice," says Bruce Flannery of ActionAIDS.  
"We don't espouse or embrace the ideas of euthanasia. ... But 
it's happening.  There is no question."  Although the statistics 
are not official, Stephen Jamison of San Francisco's Hemlock 
Society, a right-to-die group, estimates that one in every four 
AIDS deaths are assisted suicides.  Don Cox of Philadelphia's 
Hemlock Society says his office receives a call every other day 
from a dying AIDS patient.  To avoid police detection, most 
assisted suicides are written off as natural causes, according to
Fred Marcus, an oncologist in Redwood City, Calif., who supports 
the move to legalize the practice of assisted suicide.  "These 
patients are going to die--comfortably in their own way, or in 
the torture, miserable way," he says.  Right-to-life advocates, 
however, say assisted suicide is wrong, even for people with 
AIDS.  "If assisted suicide becomes an accepted option, there 
will be all sorts of societal undertones pushing AIDS patients to
kill themselves," asserts Ed Rivet of Right to Life of Michigan.
      

David S. Stodolsky, PhD      Internet: 
Inst. of Political Science               Internet: 
Univ. of Copenhagen, Rosenborgg. 15            Tel.: + 45 32 97 66 74
DK-1130 Copenhagen K, Denmark                   Fax: + 45 31 59 76 44

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=2779