This republished article first appeared in the National Review

A grieving mother who is in good health has been accepted for termination by a Swiss suicide clinic. From the New York Post story:

A physically healthy British woman heartbroken over the death of her only son is heading to Switzerland to end her own life at an assisted suicide clinic.

Wendy Duffy, 56, attempted to take her own life after her son died four years ago — but is soon bound for Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal, after her application was accepted by a clinic, according to the London Times.

Duffy, a former care worker from the West Midlands, told the Daily Mail that she paid Pegasos, a Swiss assisted-dying nonprofit organization, $13,500 to euthanize herself under its care, saying suicide is the only way her “spirit can be free.”

Thirteen grand! A lot of money is being made by Swiss suicide clinics accommodating the death desires of despairing people.

Suicide is becoming romanticized:

She’s already chosen what she will wear on her deathbed and told the Daily Mail that Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With A Smile” will be playing as she passes on. Once she’s dead, she’s requested that all the belongings she brought with her be donated.

The consequences of legalizing assisted suicide are finally becoming unequivocal. We follow roads where they lead. Once we declare that facilitated death is an acceptable answer to suffering, there is no way to limit the causes of suffering that qualify one to be made dead. If it’s okay for a cancer patient, why not also a grieving mother, the owner of a business that collapsed, a bored elderly person “tired of life,” or someone struggling with mental illness?

This is why euthanasia laws always expand over time. Indeed, after decades of the promotion of “death with dignity,” we are becoming desensitized to the carnage. We are well on the way to determining that assisted suicide is a fundamental human right — as courts in Germany and Estonia have already ruled.

Can we finally agree that the issue is ultimately about whether we want to empower a death-on-demand culture? If that is what we want, at least be honest about it. If not, it seems to me the only defense is to refuse assisted-suicide legalization, regardless of the cause. Otherwise, institutionalized suicide’s triumph is only a matter of time.

(UPDATE: Wendy Duffy died on April 25 at the Swiss clinic, according to the Daily Mail)