Retired Lawyer, Worried About Mental Decline, Asks Court to Approve Suicide
A retired lawyer in Florida has filed suit asking a court to allow his doctor to assist his suicide when he reaches the point of mental incapacity.
James Mahorner, 76, says small strokes are attacking his brain, and he wants to establish a right to die while he is still competent, the Jacksonville Times-Union reports. He is bothered by his inability to remember basic things like where he left his car keys. He didn’t tell his doctor about the suit because he can’t remember his name.
The Florida Bar lists Mahorner, who lives in Jacksonville Beach, as unable to practice law due to incapacitation, the story says.
Mahorner didn’t seek out publicity about the suit. “Who’d want to be on stage over an issue like this?” he said.
Florida law bars assisted suicide, and courts have upheld the law. Mahorner thinks the government opposes the right to die so it can tax the medical costs associated with dying. “The government is delaying my death so I will produce for them,” he told the newspaper.
Mahorner’s son, James Mahorner Jr., opposes his father’s lawsuit. “I can’t accept it because he trained all of us to be survivors,” he told the newspaper. “I don’t care how bad it hurts to live in your head, that’s part of survival. That’s what he taught us.”
