Life, Death, and How We Value Both

I found this news article disturbing, in the larger context of the celebration of the death of Osama bin Laden, which seems to be crowding the line between justice and vengeance.  At issue for me is how we regard the dignity of human life, and death, more so where we have reason for anger and fear. I wish we displayed less joy over a human death, however evil the person.  At some point, this says more about ourselves than it does about bin Laden.

I'm relieved to hear that the photos won't be released by the White House.  That would have been grotesque, macabre.

On the early morning news, it was announced that a nurse, William Melchert Dinkel, had been convicted of assisting and encouraging two people to commit suicide last March, and would be sentenced sometime today.  One woman jumped to her death from a bridge in 2008; the other victim was a man in England who hanged himself.

Dinkel met both of his victims online, where he deceived them he was female.  Ghoulishly, Dinkel desired the two to commit suicide in front of a webcam so that he could witness their deaths.

His defense attorney, who will almost certainly appeal the conviction, contends that his words online encouraging these two people to end their lives were not his responsible for the deaths, because they were 'predisposed'.  Presumably by that he means that the original idea for them to kill themselves did not come from Dinkel, only the encouragement to do so once the idea had occurred.  His other defense is that his words should be protected speech under the first amendment.

I'm not clear how Dinkel's words are significantly different from someone yelling fire in a crowded theater when no fire is present that results in harm to others, which is prohibited first amendment speech.

It may very well be true that Dinkel is not the sole cause of these suicides. But I find the contention that Dinkel did not have an affect on the two to act surprising, given the success by suicide hot lines and by mental health professionals in bringing people back from that desperate choice.  Someone with medical training should know that more than a person without it.  While professionals are not successful in preventing every suicide, the extent to which such successes do occur argues that what people say to those contemplating suicide does have an effect, good or bad, large or small.

This case particularly intrigued me as I believe that there is a place in our society for extremely limited assisted suicide and legal euthanasia such as that allowed in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Montana, Oregon and Washington in the U.S.  In these jurisdictions, this is about giving an individual the maximum amount of control over an inevitable, usually extremely painful death where the circumstances are carefully monitored through medical evaluations and ethical review for suitability, to protect the person from exploitation and misinformation or manipulation.  It is a process that is intended to promote dignity, compassion, and maximum self-determination.

I appreciate the importance of freedom of speech in the discussion of public policy about these social issues.  This would seem to be clearly very different from encouraging someone to die for someone else's cheap thrill.  It does not rely on deception.