As a hospice nurse, it has been my privilege to care for many dying people. Every day, I see people who cherish their last days and, helped by hospice care, they are able to have both comfort and dignity at the end of their lives. I have not witnessed dying people clamoring for assistance to end it all; in other words, physician-assisted suicide is not something dying people talk about. Instead, I have witnessed many who courageously live life to its fullest up to the end of their lives.

While discussing recent news coverage of the physician-assisted suicide referendum with my family, my 7-year-old son observed, “But, mommy, isn’t suicide a bad thing?”

I would like to add a thought to the long list of arguments against this dangerous proposed legislation to legalize physician-assisted suicide. In a state like Maine, with such a high teen-age suicide rate, do we want to give our children this mixed message? Shouldn’t we instead promote the idea that life is valuable and suicide is not the answer? Instead of physician-assisted suicide, let’s send our children a clear message to promote the comfort and dignity that hospice provides. I intend to vote no in November and help to defeat physician assisted suicide in the Maine referendum. Deborah Demosthenes, R.N. Topsham