Interestingly, this letter was published with the sentence in italics deleted.
If the police checkpoint at that Exit meeting in Maungaraki was designed - by persons unknown - to turn up the heat under the euthanasia debate, it succeeded: seemingly we all agree (Letters, October 31) that it was above and beyond the call of duty.
In essence this debate is
driven by fear of death, but in the past our Christian heritage meant we coped
with it. Kiwis had a can-do attitude to life - and to death. We could do death,
because we knew it meant new life. Now that we’ve forgotten that, or reject it,
or simply don’t know it, that fear pervades the whole of society: witness drug,
food and alcohol addiction, bursting prisons and ever-increasing
crime.
Unfortunately, a decision
predicated on fear, such as legalising assisted suicide, will never work. And
unfortunately there’s nothing like fear of suffering and losing control for
making people as angry as hornets.
Forget the outrage over the
blitz on after-hours drinking, or delinquent Hutt Valley teens; this time poor
old Mr Plod has plodded into a hornets’ nest.
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