Couple dies in apparent double-suicide

By JOAN BARRON
Star-Tribune capital bureau Wednesday, January 05, 2005




CHEYENNE -- A well-known Cheyenne couple, Helen and Ethan Levine, died New Year's Day in an apparent double-suicide.

The Casper Star-Tribune and the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle in Cheyenne both received obituaries for the Levines on Tuesday. The couple apparently mailed them from their home at 1055 County Road 110 A W. in Cheyenne before killing themselves.

Ethan Levine, 50, was the former manager of the Frontier Mall in Cheyenne and was a marketing consultant. Helen Levine, 73, was public information officer for the Wyoming Department of Health for 12 years and wrote a column for the Casper Star-Tribune for the last six years.

In a final column submission to the Star-Tribune, also received by mail Tuesday, Helen Levine reminded readers about her support of "death with dignity."

"On January 1, 2005, my husband, Ethan, and I, chose to leave this world together through self-deliverance," Levine wrote. She did not specify how they planned to commit suicide.

Levine's submission went on to tell of their major health problems -- his multiple sclerosis and diabetes, and her heart disease.

"Neither of us could live without the other," she wrote.

She also wrote that the couple had "experienced insults in our employment" and criticized President Bush for the war in Iraq and on other issues.

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http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2005/01/05/news/wyoming/0d9adc0d892ff72e87256f80000c6937.txt

At least they got their one final word in against Bush before they went...sounds like they felt helpless to change this government also by getting one last word in.

...but allow humans to suffer? Granted, this couple didn't employ dr-assisted suicide, but I'll never quite understand why society still frowns on a person's right to die on their own terms.:shrug:

and I think this couple is very, very brave.

:cry:

sounds like they looked at their situations, considered the options (and the likely problems), and decided to depart together rather than having to endure each other's suffering . . . maybe not the best decision by some standards, but certainly one they're entitled to make . . . jmho, of course . . .