Assisted Suicide

There was a great discussion on the Michael Smerconish show Monday night. He is really the only politically-oriented radio talk show I can listen to. Liberals (big L) and Conservatives (big C) all have this terrible tendency to spout off extreme views because it is better for ratings. After a few times, they start believing their own drivel and it just gets worse. And since usually the most extreme people are the ones who call in, the rest of the conversation gets even worse. But Smerconish largely stays away from that. He has to get a little titillating to keep his ratings up, but not by being extremist.

So his discussion of assisted suicide (the death of Dr. Kevorkian was the starting point) was really good. I recommend listening to the audio on his web site if you have some time. He is a libertarian (small l) so he thinks that people should be able to decide for themselves their end of life decisions. And as a former lawyer, he had some good advice about being explicit in a living will to make sure that your preferences get followed. And when extremists on either side called in, he was very logical and methodical in cutting them down, or at least differentiating the situations when their view would be appropriate and when it would not (this is the talent I like most about his show).