38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An eloquent plea for our civil right to suicide., October 23, 1999
This review is from: Fatal Freedom: The Ethics and Politics of Suicide (Hardcover)
In his new book, FATAL FREEDOM, Dr. Thomas Szasz has taken the first step in destigmatizing suicide. In so doing he reminds us that not so long ago in England the failed suicide was punished by execution and his family deprived of his property. To "insanitize" him, that is, render him non compos mentis, seemed the only just solution.
Dr. Szasz does not admit the existence of mental illness unlike Dr. Kay Jamison who, in her book NIGHT FALLS FAST, assumes in the suicide its "almost ubiquitous presence." She discounts the will as a vital force in determining behavior; he emphasizes it as follows: Suicide is not a disease but a deed and as such, poses a moral, not a medical, problem. To allow medical experts to pathologize it is indicative of our willingness not to think, but to be thought for. More, these agents of our ever-expanding "therapeutic state" seem unable to call things by their right names. For example: Why say suicide is an unnatural act when they mean it is a wrongful one? Or misname medical intervention for the dying as medical treatment? Szasz deplores imprecise language because it rigor-mortises thought and begs significant questions. How can we, for example, without empirical evidence, accept the idea that mental illness is like any other illness?
Dr. Jamison reminds us that suicide among the young has tripled in the last forty-five years; Dr. Szasz asks whether suicide prevention in its present form does not increase its likelihood. Her study echoes the latest orthodox belief in biologically-based mood disorders. He, on the other hand, takes issue with our tendency to pathologize socially unacceptable behavior: Only yesterday we believed masturbation and homosexuality cause insanity. Today insanity causes suicide. To call the subject ill and to incarcerate him "for his own good" not only presupposes his act unjustified, it relieves him of responsibility for it;-and because it is more blessèd to forgive than to blame, relieves us of responsibility too.
Szasz goes further: If we have birth control, why not death control? If we allow justifiable homicide on grounds of self defense, why not justifiable suicide? The question gives one pause.
Death is the final indignity imposed by time; it is, paradoxically, our only refuge from it. "One loves ultimately one's own desires," writes Nietszche, "not the thing desired." And when desires fade from old age or debilitating illness, are we not sometimes obliged to relieve our loved ones and ourselves of further agony? Yes, says Szasz. For suicide is not only an act of will, it may be a moral responsibility.
I think of the Myth of Sisyphus, its corollary in our lives: Sisyphus, whose punishment was to push a boulder up a mountain that must always roll down again, could not choose but submit. Can free will have taught us that unless we find joy in our struggles we had best not struggle at all? Shall we all lie down and sleep in the shadow of the rock? Yes, if we choose, says Szasz! Yet he does not advocate suicide, only its option: Who but we should control how and when we die? he asks. But to sanction such a choice for every adult?
Running rampant among the young today is the infectious disease of despair that breeds on the fallacy that things difficult are necessarily impossible, and what is largely true is wholly true. And symptomatic of this disease is the alarming insistence that there is nothing to prevent the pendulum from swinging us all into annihilation. Statistics don't lie. These are parlous times.
And our suicide-prevention programs are failing. Should we abolish them then? No, says Szasz, we should abolish coercive suicide prevention, and instead practice verbal persuasion as do the Samaritans in England. They, in respecting the suicide's wishes, more often than not dissuade him from the act.
I don't remember the last time I talked back to a book. FATAL FREEDOM is an exciting read, a tonic breath of fresh air. I recommend it highly for lay people and medical professionals alike.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An honest and compassionate defense of suicide, December 10, 1999
This review is from: Fatal Freedom: The Ethics and Politics of Suicide (Hardcover)
Thomas Szasz is one of century's brilliant social thinkers. He's best known for his criticism of psychiatric pseudo-science and coercive practices, but his intellectual reach is vast. In this remarkable book about suicide he defends the right of individuals to control their bodies and lives -- including the ways they choose to die. He takes issue with physicians having the power to determine our fate and places the choice and responsibility for suicide into the hands of the individual. He would end drug prohibition (including limits on access to prescription drugs), and permit adults (not children) to obtain the drugs necessary to commit suicide. He presents a convincing argument that physician-assisted suicide takes us farther from personal autonomy, making us more dependent and vulnerable. He notes that about a quarter of physicians in Holland, where physician-induced euthanasia is common, admit to having killed a patient without asking for the person's permission. As I write this review the American Medical Association is enlarging its interest in suicide prevention, but Szasz points out that doctors and psychiatrists commit suicide at much higher ratest than the general population. Szasz asks readers to look to the historical record of physician participation in euthanasia (Nazi germany, for instance) to see what moral depravity and mortal mayham have resulted. Szasz flatly supports the right of an individual to commit suicide without interference from physicians, psychiatrists or government. As is always true with Szasz writings, this book is tightly reasoned and beautifully written. It is a work of great compassion and honesty.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Szasz clarifies ethical and practical aspects of suicide, November 12, 1999
This review is from: Fatal Freedom: The Ethics and Politics of Suicide (Hardcover)
If you are bewildered by the debates over physician-assisted suicide, suicide prevention, and the legal right to suicide, then this book should answer your questions. Szasz demonstrates clearly and logically what a mess we have made of dying and how we can choose ethical, compassionate options that give power to the dying rather than to government and physicians. Why should individuals be deprived of the right to the means of dependable, dignified suicide? What are the dangers of giving doctors the power and tools to kill people? Why are physicians --who are themselves three times more likely to commit suicide than the general population-- the appropriate persons to engage in "suicide prevention"? How is the "war on drugs" stripping us of the power to control pain and death? Szasz tackles these and many other questions. He points out that in Holland, where physician-assisted suicide in common, 23 percent of physicians say they have participated in the killing of a patient WHO DID NOT AGREE TO BE KILLED. Is this compassionate medicine or nazi-style euthanasia? Szasz provides convincing answers to the complete array of questions surrounding suicide.
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