Willie Brown Show: Assisted Suicide

Willie Brown interviews Bob Harper, California resident charged with murder for assisting his wife Virginia Harper in ending her life when her terminal cancer became too physically painful. In August 1990 Harper travelled with his wife to Wisconsin where he thought it might be legal to assist individuals in suicide. Several months later he was charged with second-degree murder, tried, and acquitted. Interviewees include: Larry Lutz, author of the argument against California Proposition 161, the Aid-in-Dying Act (1992); Dr. James Brooke, Americans for Death and Dignity, and sponsor of Proposition 161; Anti physician-assisted suicide advocate, Dr. Robert Quadro, director of Mercy Hospice and member of the Mercy Ethics Committee. Interviewees discuss and debate arguments for and against physician-assisted suicide.