Assisted Suicide
In this age of frustrated justice, in which child molesters are released from prison, rapists are paroled and killers roam the streets after shortened sentences (for good behavior), it is appalling that Judge Linda Lefkowitz (April 9) should refuse to dismiss the charges against a man who assisted the terminally ill person he loved to a dignified and merciful death. What has become of the human heart?
James Northcutt, as you reported, “could not live without pain and anxiety, and had lost control of most bodily functions. . . . His medical records are filled with references to his desire to die. The decision to commit suicide could hardly be described as anything but a rational choice.”
And so, when a doctor would not, Keith Green, who loved him, agreed to help him. Was ever an act more human, more loving? Would you not have done the same for a loved one who pleaded for help?
And yet Judge Lefkowitz, who appears unacquainted with the human heart, would have Green face three years in prison.
JAMES PRIDEAUX
Los Angeles
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