By Dave Andrusko

To be honest there's not much chance I'd be stopping by Borders on my own to buy the latest issue of "O"--the Oprah Magazine. But a pro-life colleague made me aware she'd seen an article worth commenting on in the March issue.

Author Zoe Fitzgerald Carter

"Imperfect Ending," by Zoe Fitzgerald Carter, is taken from a forthcoming book of the same title. The excerpt is not long enough to do justice to what no doubt is a very complicated intra-family dynamic, but long enough so we can conclude that her mother's relentless determination to drag her daughters into her suicide likely will only exacerbate long-simmering tensions. (Her mother is never identified by name.)

From the very beginning, Zoe appears to be trapped in a maze of conflicting emotions. There is the cheery, immensely irritating way her mother calls her, badgering her to "just peek at your schedule," "hoping that weekend might work for you" (the weekend "to end things"). Half way through a phone conversation her mother is suggesting she bring along the two granddaughters, 4 and 8!

Although angry that her mother is making this sound like a "family reunion," Zoe is manipulated into coming out, guiltily thinking about her mother dying (killing herself) alone.

Her mother suffers from a number of conditions not uncommon in the elderly and, worst of all, Parkinson's. But before she kills herself the mother wants validation from an authority figure and needs a lethal prescription.

We are supposed to conclude that a local psychiatrist (and prominent member of the assisted suicide movement) that Zoe and her mother are meeting with will provide an objective assessment of whether the mother is a "good candidate for 'self-deliverance.'" After a few preliminaries, he asks the mother if she thinks she is depressed (she says no).

When he asks Zoe the same question, Zoe wants to answer yes--she thinks to herself, "Why else would she be talking to you about ending her life?"--but also says no.

The interview seems to be so casual that Zoe asks the psychiatrist how he decides whom he will prescribe Seconal for. And by his answer it's clear. If he thinks you are mentally competent (which he does, having accepted at face value the mother's own assessment that she is not depressed), he will likely prescribe the drug if you have a serious, debilitating illness.

The excerpt ends with the mother's suicide, following two "failures"--at self-starvation and at overdosing on morphine. There are lots of comforting paragraphs about tidy rooms and song-singing ,concluding with a "warm and strong" expression" from Zoe, "Good-bye, good-bye, wherever you are."

For all I know Carter's book might wind up a best-seller. But what we read in "O" doesn't reflect well on anyone.

The mother puts the onus on Zoe and her sisters--"I can't plan anything unless I know you girls are available"--and they dutifully get commandeered into plotting the details that will allow the mother to kill herself with her daughter[s] in the room. Although Zoe assures us, directly and indirectly, that by the end she is at peace with her mother's decision, it is very difficult to believe that feeling will last long.

Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com.

Part Three