[Right_to_die] Euthanasia and assisted suicide are inevitable, says author

[World right-to-die news list (nonprofit)]

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The Daily Telegraph in London reported 17 Jan 11:

Martin Amis says euthanasia is 'an evolutionary inevitability'

Says the primitive Christian notion of the sanctity of life is holding 
back debate on assisted suicide

Martin Amis is to campaign for the laws on assisted suicide to be reformed.

The author, who caused an outcry last year when he called for euthanasia 
booths to be installed on every street corner, says that he now regards 
euthanasia as nothing less than "an evolutionary inevitability".

Amis says: "We are living too long. It's not viable. I can't think of 
any reason to stay alive once the mind goes. It is an existential 
nightmare that you can't get out of life. Medical science got us into 
this and medical science will have to get us out."

Amis, who has been given a platform for his views by Channel 4 in a 
polemical programme, believes that public opinion is on his side. "Of 
course, there are legal difficulties, but people are ahead of the 
Government on this. It is a residue of Christian feeling – this idea of 
the sanctity of life – that is holding things back, but we have to get 
rid of this primitive feeling."

The author of Money and London Fields has said that he believes authors 
"tend to go off" at about 70. He is 61.

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