Forces of coercion and the “right to die”

In the New York Times, a writer with personal experience of lifelong disability warns against the spreading legalization of assisted suicide:

Perhaps, as advocates contend, you can’t understand why anyone would push for assisted-suicide legislation until you’ve seen a loved one suffer. But you also can’t truly conceive of the many subtle forces — invariably well meaning, kindhearted, even gentle, yet as persuasive as a tsunami — that emerge when your physical autonomy is hopelessly compromised.
…
Advocates of Death With Dignity laws who say that patients themselves should decide whether to live or die are fantasizing. Who chooses suicide in a vacuum? We are inexorably affected by our immediate environment. The deck is stacked.

This is eloquent and disturbing first-hand testimony of our society’s growing tendency to define and prize “quality of life” at the expense of life itself.