Right to Die

weakness.”
    More “That’s right” and several “Amens” piped up politely.
    “Which of you would cast the first stone by saying, ‘It is too much trouble for me to tend my own’? Which of you would sleep better, eat better, live better, knowing you had ended a life you knew and loved? A life which God as part of His almighty and miraculous plan had placed before you to nurture. When we wore the chains of the white slave owners, we were forbidden to learn how to read and write. It was a crime for anyone to teach us such things. Are we who know the worst of what it is to have decisions made for us and against us and on top of us, are we now to say, ‘I know what is best for that life, and what is best is that I should end it?’ ”
    What started as “That’s right” and “Amen” became “No! No!”
    “Of course we are not to say that. We are not to say that because we are creatures of God and creatures of conscience. Creatures that can love and pray and give thanks for loving and praying both, because those qualities are what truly separate us from the beasts of fang and hoof. If we were to kill our brothers and sisters, our fathers and mothers, who gave us life itself, just because it has become more expensive and less efficient to clutch these dear souls to our bosom, then what have we become? We have gone back and dropped down, we have rejoined the beasts of fang and hoof, tearing at kin and neighbor just to make our own lives easier. And that must never be.” A lot of the black members of the audience leaned forward in their seats, sensing the crescendo before I did. A thin sheen of perspiration above the reverend’s eyebrows refracted the baby spot almost mystically.
    “That must never be because then who would be safe from the twin swords of expense and efficiency? Who can we justify maintaining in our nursing homes as their lives draw to a close in God’s unknowable time? Who can we justify healing and strengthening at the midpoint of a life so far not productive, so far not in the image that Wall Street and Madison Avenue would have us embrace? And who can we justify suckling and wanning and bringing forth from the nursery, when we know deep down in our hearts that no one can predict what turn that life might take.
    “I suggest to you, to you brother and to you sister, that no one can approach, that no one can exceed, that no one can”—Givens fixed on Eisenberg and Andrus —“debate the infinite and everlasting judgment of the Lord God and Jesus Christ as to which of the creatures fashioned in Their image is now ready to be returned to Them. Amen.”
    Givens scooped up her notes and went back to her seat. Most of the blacks and perhaps twenty percent of the whites gave her a standing ovation, stamping their feet harder than they were clapping their hands.
    Over the din I heard Rick, the second banana, say to Gun, “We do it, the cops are on us like fucking glue. The niggers do it—”
    Gun cut him off by raising his hand in a stop sign. Jurick waited until the tumult died away before moving to the microphone. “Thank you, Reverend Givens. And now, ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Paul Eisenberg.” Eisenberg, over six feet tall, got up in fits and starts, his chair not gliding back. He was bald, with a full beard and half glasses. His hand shook visibly as he laid his papers on the podium. Eisenberg began to read from them without readjusting the height of the microphone. He stopped and twisted the mike as people in the audience tittered.
    Eisenberg started over. “Unlike Reverend Givens before me and Professor Andrus to follow, I am not an accomplished public speaker. Therefore, I have to hope that the logic of what I have to say to you can rise above my awkwardness in saying it. My ultimate message, however, transcends even logic. That message is, ‘First, do no harm.’ “That is the cornerstone of all medical training. The physician must first be certain that he does—excuse me, that he or she —does no harm to the patient involved. Our entire mission is to save lives, not to contribute, directly or indirectly, to the taking of them. There can be no right to die because there can be no right to kill, not even one’s own self, because suicide is an act recognized as a crime by the entirety of the civilized world. To be confronted with a situation in which a patient, or the family of a patient, requests that a physician end life is simply anesthetic—excuse me, is simply