A Dignified Death

Some men read the sports section of the paper first. My father, in his mid-70s, heads for the obituaries. And he has for more than 50 years.

Not just the official obits written by staffers, he also reads the little blurbs, written and paid for by family. And something in the New York Times last weekend caught his eye; a first, he says, in a genre of journalism not known for big changes.

"NIMITZ — Chester W., Rear Admiral, age 86, and his wife, Joan Labern Nimitz, age 89, of Needham and Wellfleet, Mass., and formerly of Boca Grande, Fla., by mutual consent on January 2, 2002 at their home in Needham."

"By mutual consent," writes the family. Attached to a high-profile person, this simple phrase signals a sea change in the matter of double suicides, even as the current administration in Washington struggles to hold back the tide.

The admiral and his wife had been members of the Hemlock Society since 1991, says Ryan Ross, the society’s spokesman.

"We are gratified that the Nimitzes found a way to achieve a quiet, dignified death," says Ross.

The couple likely died of an overdose of pills, according to the New York Post, which quotes from a suicide note: "We wish our relatives to know that we are leaving their company in a peaceful frame of mind."

Quiet, dignified, peaceful. But can suicide, especially a double suicide, ever be considered a rational act?

It’s on the reasonableness of killing oneself that advocates and opponents of suicide sharply divide, and it is a debate that dates back at least to Aristotle’s time.

Those who oppose suicide say that taking one’s own life is never rational, and that they wish to protect the "sanctity of life."

So I asked Faye Girsh, president of the Hemlock Society, if she was comfortable being in the camp against life’s sanctity.

"We don’t know exactly what the ‘sanctity of life’ means," Girsh responded. "But we do believe that life has value. And that more people are looking at this possibility, and that the media is handling this more sympathetically — as a rational alternative."

Rational or not, if John Ashcroft has his way, a dignified suicide will be less of a possibility. In response to a 1997 Oregon law, the U.S. attorney general recently directed federal drug agents to investigate suspicious overdoses, with the specific intent of yanking the licenses of prescribing doctors.

Pending court challenges, the AG’s directive is on hold. But should he succeed, every doctor whose name is on a bottle of lethal pills could be prosecuted.

And more shots from guns will shatter the last rites of those who wish to die with dignity.