William Meyer, a Connecticut man convicted of second-degree manslaughter for helping his terminally-ill father commit suicide, defended his decision in a panel discussion last night.
Yesterday's discussion, titled "Compassion -- or Murder: When is Assisted Suicide Homicide?" in 105 Dartmouth Hall was attended by about 75 people.
At his father's request, Meyer fixed a plastic bag over his father's head with rubber bands and held his father's hands away from the bag so he would not remove it before the large dose of sedatives he had ingested took effect.
"My immediate response was to talk him out of it," Meyer said. "We were just so close -- he was my best friend and adviser ... but I always looked up to my father and admired his decisions."
His father's death was initially dismissed as simple suicide, but Meyer's desire to speak out on the issue led to his arrest.
Meyer pleaded for "accelerated rehabilitation," in which his character and intentions were judged and he was sentenced to two years probation for an offense that is punishable by 10 years in prison.
Meyer said he received about 300 letters supporting his decision. "I have cried many, many nights reading the letters of these people who tell me of the suffering and anguish they experienced watching their loved ones die," he said. "They feel guilty for not helping them die."
Meyer said that he did not think of the consequences of revealing his story to the public.
"My father's last words were 'tell my story' ... I felt that what I did was right and that there is a loving God and justice," he said.
Dr. Joanne Lynn, a geriatrician and health services researcher, and Father John McHugh, director of Dartmouth's Aquinas House argued against assisted suicide.
Lynn argued that legalizing assisted suicide is not the relevant issue. Instead, she encouraged the audience to consider the inevitability of their own death and to ask themselves what they are going to want when they are close to dying.
She offered two options: either "a care system in which doctors can manage a patient's pain and provide community contact," or "a society in which patients are gently persuaded to commit suicide."
McHugh argued that allowing assisted suicide leads to a murderous social climate. "Every form of loss of life becomes morally thinkable -- genocide for example," he said.
"All human life is a gift from God. Unlike other gifts it is to be lived and not used," he said.
There were two other panelists -- Walter Kaye, a California attorney, and Luis Gallup, chairman of the New Hampshire Hemlock Society..
"It's not a pro-death stance, but support for the personal autonomy to choose death with dignity, to direct one's life and death in a society which cherishes liberty and freedom," Kaye said.
Gallup said he believes the legalization of death with dignity is imminent.
