We respectfully disagree with your “Sound Off” column of Sept. 13 in support of I-1000. We are as passionate about opposing this initiative as the writer is in supporting it and for these reasons.

We have become a throwaway society. Instead of repairing items we buy, we simply throw them out. Unfortunately, human beings are increasingly being included among these things. The seriousness of devaluating human life can be seen in the fact that the Nazi Holocaust, with all of its incredible atrocities, can be traced back to the blurring of the line between healing and killing by physicians.

Before the Nazis killed the Jews, they deemed them less than human. They began experimenting on them and eventually they began to systematically kill the chronically sick, the lame and elderly. What do you do about those who are not going to get well? This was the first step down a slippery slope that led to Auschwitz.

Where then do we/you draw the line: It’s easy. Doctors must not kill. Doctors must uphold the Hippocratic oath to do no harm. Today many people are blinded to the eternal and divine consideration on these important matters of life and death. However, God has made it very clear: “You shall not murder.” We shall not commit murder of our neighbors, our brother, our mother, our father, or ourselves. We are not our own! God gives life and He has every right to take it at His appointed time.

A well-known theologian by the name of Frances Schaeffer once said, “that of all the inalienable rights, life is by far the most important. We should not open the door to practices in our society that remove this fundamental right from those who are vulnerable and in need of our care and compassion. The great divide is between those who believe man is a special creation of God and those who believe he is just the product of time and chance.

It is stated in your opinion column that patients must complete an application in order to finally be given a prescription for a lethal dose of medication that would terminate the patients life. Therein lies the rub! In so doing, we as a society, are asking physicians to participate in another person’s death. The society of our day would call that murder. If the patient is bound and determined to end their life, then they should do it by other means, not by the aid of another person.

We do not want legal options for the above reasons. Laws like these always sound so reasonable and compassionate at first, when in fact, they always have a way of growing into something very ugly. I hope you will change your mind and oppose I-1000 as we do.

In conclusion, if we as a people approve assisted suicide in this great land we call America, then we will repeat history, by taking that first step down the slippery slope.

Richard Boettner

Anacortes