Peter J. Bernardi

Peter J. Bernardi, an assistant professor of religious studies at Loyola University in New Orleans, argues in the following viewpoint that individuals do not have a right to assisted suicide. Bernardi maintains that personal freedom must be balanced against individuals’ responsibilities to the communities they live in: In his view, a right to suicide would be contrary to each person’s responsibility to uphold the value of life. Bernardi believes that advocates of assisted suicide have failed to consider how acceptance of the practice would harm both terminally ill patients and society as a whole, and this has led them to falsely conclude that individuals have a right to die.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What does Bernardi say are the hallmarks of a just society?
2. In the...