On Euthanasia And Assisted Suicide

Michel Houellebecq at Harper’s:

Let’s start with a wicked little paragraph. Guy Debord chose to kill himself the old-fashioned way; Jean-Luc Godard—“the dumbest Swiss Maoist of them all,” in the words of the amusing situationist-inspired slogan—turned to assisted suicide; the next provocateur of genius will no doubt opt for medicalized euthanasia. The bar, as they say, keeps dropping.

On the other hand, Mark Zuckerberg rose in my esteem (not hard to do) when I learned that he had decided to eat no animals except those he killed himself. It’s a commitment we might suggest (or require?) for everyone who mocks vegetarianism. The same goes for proponents of the death penalty. Wouldn’t it be interesting to enlist a firing squad composed of the jury who voted for capital punishment? (I’m sorry to leap from animals to people, but it’s basically the same question.) I’m not a convinced vegetarian, nor am I resolutely against the death penalty, but I do believe we should accept the consequences of our choices.

more here.