Well, what do you know: Two reporters have connected a few dots about the assisted suicide issue. In this story, byline John Simerman and Cassandra Braun of the Contra Costa Times, note that while California is debating assisted suicide, we have a brewing elder suicide crisis on our hands. From the story:
Beneath a simmering debate on a proposal to legalize assisted suicide in California for some terminally ill patients lies a muffled truth: Seniors-- and particularly older white men--kill themselves at a higher rate than any other age group.Assisted suicide is more fuel for the flame, because when legalized the state is telling its citizens that suicide is an acceptable answer to the problems of human suffering and difficulty. (Oregon has also declared an elder suicide crisis.) And mark my words, once people accept the premise of assisted suicide, advocates will begin agitating for expanding the license to include the elderly and others--and using the same arguments we hear today for the terminally ill. It has already happened in the Netherlands where elderly are euthanized and a former Minister of Health advocated suicide pills for the elderly who are tired of life.
The theories vary, but not the phenomenon. It runs across the country and through Contra Costa County, where every three weeks another senior ends his or her life. Older men swing the balance. They make up 5 percent of the county population but 16 percent of confirmed suicides, county health data show.
Read the whole blog post at Wes Smith's site.
