Pro-Life, -Choice debate continues

Should there be people allowed to determine whose lives are worth living? Is it up to any person to decide when someone else should die?

According to Wesley Smith, a noted anti-euthanasia activist and popular bioethics writer, the answer to both questions is "no."

Last night, Smith spoke to a packed audience in Logan Hall about what he sees as the dangers of assisted suicide and euthanasia, explaining why its approval would threaten the weak and affect us collectively "as a society."

Recalling past experiences with terminally ill friends and family, Smith argued that the foundation of advocates' reasons for performing euthanasia and assisting in patient suicides is "bogus."

"There are ways to care for people, to love them, to make them feel included," Smith said. "Assisted suicide is abandonment."

Smith used case studies from all over the world in order to enlighten his audience of what he deemed the universal threat of assisted suicide and euthanasia.

"Thirty-one percent of all pediatricians [in the Netherlands] have killed babies," he said.

His lecture was hosted by the student group Penn for Life as a part of Penn's second annual Witness Week, which addresses human-rights issues.

But Penn for Choice - a student organization promoting awareness of reproductive issues and rights - might consider euthanasia a human-rights issue in a somewhat different light.

According to Penn for Choice President Sonia Pascal, "rational adults have the capacity to make choices about themselves and their bodies. In terms of euthanasia, we believe that people must be allowed to die with dignity, if they so choose."

"Personally, I believe there are certainly fates worse than death," Pascal added. "I know that I would like the opportunity to decide for myself whether I have to die a long, drawn-out, painful death or whether I can have control over the end of my life."

College senior and pro-choice advocate Suma Chennubhotla came to the lecture with an open mind. "It's just interesting to see what the other side has to say," she said.

College senior Shachee Doshi shared a similar view with Chennubhotla from personal experience.

"I had a friend whose grandmother was just put to sleep last semester," said Doshi. "I'm just here to get more perspective. This is an interesting topic."

An author and lawyer, Wesley Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, an attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide and a special consultant for the Center for Bioethics and Culture. He has authored or co-authored eleven books.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.