To the editor:

This letter responds to George Will’s Aug. 30 column about the “right to die.”

No one needs to be guaranteed a right to die. The one thing certain in life is that we will leave it.

There is no “right” under human or natural law to kill oneself. However, I think a law against suicide is not good. If the suicide is successful, no one can prosecute. If it’s not, then treating the survivor as a criminal seems neither compassionate nor practical.

But what Will and others advocate is a right to have someone else kill you, “assisted suicide.” What it is, is killing. Getting someone else to kill you has already shown to be a slippery slope. After being approved for severe pain, it’s spread to the disabled and depressed.

And, indeed, of there is a “right” to have someone else kill you, why should it be limited to the terminally ill?