Word: commitment
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Moreau justifies publication on the grounds that the right to commit suicide is inalienable and that the book only furnishes the "means to execute" it. That's an argument shunned by even most euthanasia societies, several of which quietly produce and selectively distribute similar booklets. The two authors, Claude Gillon and Yves le Bonnied, are more sensible. They refuse all interviews. They know, after all, that they can legally get away with printing the book; France has no laws against aiding suicide. Legally, the authors are sitting pretty, and it will undoubtedly take time for even the most passionately angry...
Most suicide attempts are, in fact, not so much attempts to die as last-ditch cries for help. French psychiatrist and suicide specialist Jean Pierre Soubrier estimates that nine out of 10 people trying to commit suicide don't really want to succeed. The prevalence of "suicidal fantasies" which never come to completion is also common knowledge. Both syndromes, of course, could be radically and tragically altered by access to 50 painless "cocktails" guaranteeing a gentle death...
Already, in Texas, a similar moral dilemma has surfaced with the publication of a manual of "friendly practical advice on how to commit murder." Despite some scattered protest, the level of public controversy has been low compared to that in France, probably because emphasis on free-speech rights and acquired callousness to the junk-book market make it seem just another tome to ignore...
...Jack W. Morse, captain of the University Police, said yesterday that it was just "routine police work," and that although Wright did not commit the theft, a witness placed him at the scene of the theft...
...complex, but, in short, MIT wants to hold onto its carte blance in the area. Various neighborhood groups say that because Cambridgeport is the last area in the city that can possibly be reserved for some type of blue collar manufacturing, they don't want to see MIT commit the entire area to white collar office space. The residents also argue that they have the right to request limits on the height and bulk of the new structures, because the buildings will affect the quality of life in their area...