The most interesting comment in the aftermath of James Dungy's suicide came from his older sister, Tiara:
All of us probably can reflect back on our own transition from adolescence to adulthood and recall moments of despair. Tiara Dungy, James' 21-year-old older sister, told their parents after his death, "I just wish he could have made it until he was 20. Because when you're 17 or 18, sometimes the things you guys say to us don't always make sense. ... When I got to 20, they started making sense again."
The euthanasia movement may have created a necessary debate about end-of-life issues and the control we should have over our own destinies. But it has also contributed to a culture in which suicide is sometimes seen as an easy first solution instead of a desperate last one. This doesn't matter so much for the presumed beneficiaries of euthanasia, those who are terminal or so infirm that they have nothing to look forward to but a life of pain. But what about such a culture's effect on teenagers, who sometimes see every emotional bump in the road as a crisis, every setback as a tragedy? How many teen suicides were going through something that, as Tiara wisely recognizes, might have seemed not quite so bad in a year or even a week?
