Dilbert’s Scott Adams Wishes a “Long, Horrible Death” to Assisted Suicide Opponents

Scott Adams, the self-described “pro-death
ignorantselfishertarian” Dilbert creator, wrote on his
personal blog this weekend that his father was dying a slow and
painful death and that he wishes for people who’ve done anything to
help maintain the prohibition on doctor-assisted suicide to
experience the same pain and suffering:

If you’re a politician who has ever voted against
doctor-assisted suicide, or you would vote against it in the
future, I hate your fucking guts and I would like you to die a
long, horrible death. I would be happy to kill you personally and
watch you bleed out. I won’t do that, because I fear the
consequences. But I’d enjoy it, because you motherfuckers are
responsible for torturing my father. Now it’s personal…

…I’m okay with any citizen who opposes doctor-assisted suicide
on moral or practical grounds. But if you have acted on
that thought, such as basing a vote on it, I would like you to die
a slow, horrible death too. You and the government are accomplices
in the torturing of my father, and there’s a good chance you’ll
someday be accomplices in torturing me to death too.

He continues on to caution readers not to “misconstrue this post
as satire or exaggeration,” emphasizing that the raw emotion of the
situation is fueling his anger. The post was followed by outrage
and disgust from
pro-life activists. Adams’ father has since died.

While National Review helpfully points out that Adams’ wrath
targets
approximately half the US population, that number should be
weighed against the 62 percent of Americans who believe in a moral
right to suicide when the patient is “suffering great pain with no
hope of improvement.” This could indicate that most Americans
believe in the right to control your own life and death, but that a
portion of them fear that doctor-assisted suicide might be
susceptible to abuse. In fact, Adams addresses this concern near
the bottom of his post:

I know that many of my fellow citizens have legitimate concerns
about doctor-assisted suicide. One can certainly imagine greedy
heirs speeding up the demise of grandma to get the inheritance.
That would be a strong argument if doctor-assisted suicide wasn’t
already working elsewhere with little problems, or if good things
in general (such as hospitals and the police) never came with their
own risks.

For an example of some of those places where doctor-assisted
suicide is working without rampant elder abuse or other horrific
consequences, watch the Reason TV video below, which examined the
fight for legalization in Montana.