Revisiting the Right to Die and Water Wars

Inasmuch as they are often referred to as The Supremes, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by the ruling rendered Thursday by the highest court in the land concerning physician-assisted suicide.

The Supreme Court’s ruling was a unanimous 9-0, but it didn’t just say stop, in the name of love. More important, the justices advised that we think it o-o-over.

It was in that spirit that I decided to check in once more with the remarkable Bob Horn of Winnetka, the former Cal State Northridge professor who has inspired more than a few columns. Left voiceless and virtually paralyzed by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Horn has survived on a ventilator for the last 6 1/2 years, yet continues to write with a specially rigged computer mouse activated by the slight muscular control that remains in one leg.

He also is able to love and be loved, as his wife Judy pointed out in a recent feature about the Horn family that aired on NBC’s “Today.” The segment was excellent as far as it went, but it’s a shame the producers allotted only three minutes to their extraordinary, inspiring tale.

The first time I heard from Bob Horn, he had “kicked out” a letter in reaction to a column I wrote about a woman who assumed the sad burden of lovingly acquiescing to her suffering, terminally ill brother’s desire for an overdose of morphine.

Bob Horn said he was a supporter of physician-assisted suicide. Although he very much finds life worth living, he explained, he felt that the terminally ill such as himself who could not end their lives without assistance should not be denied the ultimate power over their own fate. He later elaborated on his opinions in his book, “How Will They Know If I’m Dead?” Ironically, Dr. C. Everett Koop, the former surgeon general who is an old friend of Bob Horn and an ardent critic of physician-assisted suicide, wrote the foreword for Horn’s book.

The issue provokes sharply divided opinion among people with severe disabilities. Unlike Horn, many fear that the sanctioning of euthanasia could lead to a “duty to die” mentality and even the extermination of people judged to be defective.

When I reached the Horns on Monday, Judy reported news I considered somewhat surprising: Bob’s position was wavering. Now he wasn’t so sure that physician-assisted suicide was an idea worth supporting.

Why?

Judy relayed the question and Bob answered by slightly moving his eyebrows to an alphabetical code: “I don’t think that the Netherlands experience is very encouraging.”

Horn cited two books that have influenced his thinking. One was Herbert Hendin’s “Seduced by Death,” a study of physician-assisted suicide in the Netherlands. The other is by anti-euthanasia activist Wesley J. Smith, titled “Forced Exit: The Slippery Slope From Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder.”

Koop may be winning a convert. He recommended both books to Horn.

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Monday also seemed like a good time to check in with Catherine Mulholland, who says she’s lived to regret her decision to participate in the making of “Cadillac Desert,” the four-part documentary on the Western water wars now being aired on KCET. Part 1 was “Mulholland’s Dream,” describing the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

William Mulholland’s 74-year-old granddaughter was laughing about the Counterpunch page in the Calendar section. She seemed pleased that Howard Rosenberg’s unflattering review had gotten under the filmmakers’ skin. Among other things, Rosenberg questioned the film’s use of “Chinatown” screenwriter Robert Towne as an expert rather than, you know, a historian.

Mulholland, who lives in Chatsworth, also was amused by the letter from John Gregory Dunne in defense of his wife, Joan Didion. Rosenberg, you see, had quoted Catherine Mulholland as using an N-word: “All that’s lacking is Joan Didion murmuring about the Nothingness of it all.” In fact, Dunne declared, “Didion has written about California water in the most reverential, even worshipful terms.” He quoted a passage in which Didion wrote of her “obsessive interest” in the waterworks and adds: “So much for Nothingness. I doubt even William Mulholland was that loony over water movement.”

Catherine Mulholland understands that many people dismiss her as born with a bias. But she seems pleased that filmmakers are paying attention to her objections, just as her grandfather had to deal with Owens Valley residents who bombed the aqueduct.

She laughs about the contretemps, but adds, “I’m pretty ticked. It resurrects so much of the old garbage. . . . I consider it pretty polemical. It’s more of a propaganda piece than a historical piece.”

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Finally, it seems high time to pass along some rhyme and reason from Geri Spagnoli, the Conejo Valley’s answer to Ogden Nash. Perhaps you remember this post-quake couplet: I think I’ve seen no bigger cheater/Than the guy who fixed my water heater. A recent column described how I retained a professional organizer to help bring order to my “work space.” Spagnoli faxed this reaction:

A study came out to which I can attest

That the busier the person the messier the desk

A filing system

Is not really my style

Everything goes on my desk in a pile

But I reluctantly figure

That it’s time to act

When I sit and can’t see

Over the stack

So I toss and I file

Then later I wonder,

What category did I file

That document under?

So I’ve finally come to the realization

That somehow there’s order

In my disorganization!

When this arrived, I put it in the new file the professional organizer had created.

Somehow it climbed out of that file and disappeared as newspapers, press releases, notebooks and polyurethane food containers began to reclaim my desk.