Walter Reich

In the following viewpoint, Walter Reich argues that doctors who help their patients commit suicide are guilty of murder. A doctor’s role is to preserve life, he asserts, not to end it. He contends that if physicians are allowed to kill their patients, society will be likely to accept other immoral practices. Reich, a psychiatrist, is a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The views expressed in this viewpoint are solely those of the author.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Reich, what rules do Dutch doctors have to follow in order to help their patients commit suicide?
2. What types of killings can society experience without losing moral decency, in Reich’s opinion?
3. Where...