I refer to the Editorial Viewpoint "Better early than too late” (Parsiana, September 7-20, 2024) about assisted dying.
"Man is born free,” declared French philosopher and writer Jean Jacques Rousseau, ruefully adding, "but everywhere is in chains.” Nowhere is the rejoinder’s irony more manifest than in the act of suicide, both unassisted and assisted (euthanasia). As though suicide’s contemplation and, thereafter, execution (admittedly a morbid word choice), is not hard enough, all sorts of extraneous and unnecessary barriers are erected to thwart what is possibly the most profound and singularly personal act, as William Shakespeare’s Hamlet states, to "end the heartache......