committing suicide of any kind we are disrupting God's natural order. In a celebrated essay on suicide, David Hume, a great Scottish philosopher, thoroughly disputed this view. He pointed out that almost any human action alters the natural order. "If I turn aside a stone which is falling upon my head, I disturb the course of nature, and I invade the peculiar province of the Almighty by lengthening out my life beyond the period which by the natural laws of matter and motion He had assigned it, " he wrote. "It would be no crime in me to divert the Nile or Danube from its course, were I able to effect such purposes. Where then is the crime of turning a few ounces of blood from their natural channel?" To the argument that human life is a special exception, Hume's reply was blunt: "the life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster." If one accepts the deist view of God as a "watch maker" who sets the world ticking and then does not intervene, Hume's conclusion is irrefutable [Economist, Oct 16,'99]. Hume's point that everything a human does to extend his life to the next day is going against the "natural order", so why would ending it be any different? Hume makes a strong argument for Euthanasia. This view does not belittle a human life, but puts it in perspective. If euthanasia is put into law, then every citizen has will have that right, not just the terminally ill. This leads down the "slippery slope" that allowing euthanasia and assisted suicide could lead to coercion of the old and ill and a hastening of their death to suit the living. But they also face another "slippery slope" that the arguments for euthanasia could lead to calls for the acceptance of suicide as morally valid, not just for the terminally ill, but for many others as well. In both cases the regulation of the practice of assisted suicide is called for. Yet the practice cannot be regulated if it is illegal. By writing laws that govern...
