I Hoped For More

When I read this headline "Hoffman fury at Hollywood 'euthanasia' ", I was encouraged to hear that someone as prominent as Dustin Hoffman would talk about this somewhat controversial issue.

THE double Oscar-winner Dustin Hoffman has made an angry attack on the "euthanasia” of the film industry, which he complains tries to “bury” any film that is not an instant cash cow.

Boy do I feel silly. What have we become when as a culture we speak of films in terms of "euthanasia" and routinely ignore the lives of the unborn, the infirm or the inconvenient? Those in favor of legalized euthanasia speak of those poor souls with no hope of recovery and racked with pain who may, in truth, wish to die sooner rather than later. What they will never mention, either made mute by their genuine advocacy for the afflicted or sheer mendacity is that once the euthanasia genie is out of the bottle, many who would rather live will die a sanitized death of expedience.