Woman commits ‘rational’ suicide

Press, 18 June 1979, Page 6

Woman commits ‘rational’ suicide

INZPA New York | A long-time advocate of | suicide as a “rational and artistic option” took a fatal dose of Seconal last week — but only after gathering close friends to help complete a “life-sculpture” in a coffin-like pine box and to drink champagne toasts. According to an account in the “New York Times,” Jo Roman, aged 62, died in the apartment where she lived with her husband, Mel, a professor of psychiatry at the Albert. Einstein Medical College in New. York. Mrs Roman, who was suffering from cancer, wrote in a statement delivered to the newspaper that she believed a person should “take command of making life’s final brushstroke.”

Fourteen months ago, Mrs Roman was diagnosed as having breast cancer. Late last year, she abandoned chemotheraphy treatments, calling them “debilitating.” In a farewell letter to friends, she wrote that she “wanted to raise consciousness” on the “rational suicide as a human right . . . Also I am averse to demeaning myself by closeting an act which 1 believe deserves respect.” Before she died, Mrs Roman, an artist and former social worker, left a statement and obituary notice with her literary agency, to be delivered to the “Times” the day after her death. She also left a notarised suicide note and a letter that was to be sen 1 to about 100 friends., In addition, she prepared a manuscript to be delivered to two potential publishers and 19 hours of videotaping that she hoped would be used for a television documentary. In the letters and manu-| script and on the video-| tapes, she explained and defended her decision to I take her life.