1. The argument that compassion, or justice, or any other good thing must be reasonable is as old as Socrates. In practice it means that the best reasoner is the best person in the room. That is certainly how Socrates used it.

2. The Eighth Amendment does not apply to Terri Schiavo because she was first punished in the Court of Life, which recognizes no amendments. Her husband and parents, and by now the nation, are dealing with the after-effects.

3. What John said about the traditional quietus of the unofficial overdose of morphine is true, and I suspect would always be so, in the absence of the strictest regulation. Is that state of things better than, say, Holland, with brightly marked express trains to easeful death (and overeager conductors hauling people off the platforms into them?). I think so. Is it better relatively–because fewer killings happen–or absolutely–because the killings that happen are not in fact bad?