Death Talk - Margaret A. Somerville

IN POSTMODERN SOCIETIES, the euthanasia and physicianassisted suicide debate is an important forum for the “death talk” through which we accommodate — with as much comfort as possible — the reality of death into the living of our lives.1 Recently, I debated Dr Philip Nitschke, at the Australian Medical Association’s Annual General Meeting in Canberra, 24–26 May 2002, on whether euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide should be legalised. Dr Nitschke advocates such legalisation; I oppose it.

In this article, I discuss my impressions of the discussion of euthanasia that took place at that AMA meeting and respond to it. Euthanasia is “a deliberate act that causes death undertaken by one person with the primary intention of ending the life of another person, in order to relieve that person’s suffering.”1 Throughout, I use the word “euthanasia” to include also physician-assisted suicide (although I recognise that in some situations, not discussed here, they
must be differentiated).

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