THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 14, 1994 TAG: 9412140042
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
LAST THURSDAY we asked, ``Do you think citizens should be allowed to get a doctor's help to end their own lives''? We received 482 responses with an overwhelming number of yes votes. Three hundred and ninety-two respondents said yes, while only 90 said no.
Here are some readers' comments:
I don't think a person should have to suffer with pain and know that they are not going to get well and know that they are going to die. They should be able to ask the doctor to help instead of lying there suffering until death. - Elsie Stinette, Virginia Beach
Anyone with a terminal illness or severely debilitating disease or disability should be permitted to have control of their own lives and death to choose when and where they want to leave this world and pass on to the next. Perhaps at home in the arms of a loved one instead of in a cold hospital filled with tubes and machines, alone, afraid and in pain. It's the dignity that we are entitled to, a choice we should be allowed to make. - JoAnne Roberts, Norfolk
I strongly support physician-assisted suicide. Older people and sick people are too often left to suffer only because so many other people believe that doctors shouldn't play God. But aren't those the same doctors playing God by keeping people alive when they are so miserably suffering. My father died that way. He suffered terrible, and I wish someone would have been able to help him end his suffering. - William Brobst, Kitty Hawk, N.C.
I feel that there is more to life than just breathing. - Jane Hillman, Norfolk
I was a caregiver for my elderly father for 5 years. He wished many times he had the choice to decide whether he wanted to end his life or live the way he was living. I'm a firm believer. - Mrs. Carlson
Yes. I'm a member of the Hemlock Society, and I certainly believe we should have the right to die. - T. Perry, Chesapeake
No, I don't feel like anyone should take their life. Only God can give a life and should be the only one to take it. - Mrs. Karen C. McJett
I firmly believe that God is the one who makes life and God is the only one who should make the decision to take life. It is not man's decision to take life. What this might lead to is the taking of life more liberally. - Beverly Anderson, Virginia Beach
I consider this the extreme example of the cop-out mentality of people these days. - Richard D. Long, Chesapeake
I'm a Navy physician, have been practicing medicine approximately 15 years. My wife is a physician also. We both are of the strong opinion, having been trained in the healing profession, that that is our job. We agree that there is dignity that has to be afforded the patient, but that is not our position to inject or give a patient a lethal drug. - Dr. John Mason, Virginia Beach
It seems unnatural for a physician to assist someone to commit suicide. I think only God can make the decision to give life or take it away. As long is there is life there is hope. Doctors' diagnoses are often wrong. Anytime there is life there is a a chance for the disease to be reversed. People often get depressed and may change their mind about dying. That's a permanent solution to sometimes a temporary problem. - Judi McArthur, Virginia Beach 495-2004.
KEYWORDS: POLL RESULTS SURVEY by CNB