Euthanasia: The Right to Die
by When a person becomes terminal, they should have the right to embrace a peaceful death.
When I watched my mother slowly die from a painful struggle with cancer, I vowed that I would never allow myself to follow in the same path. Her journey was fraught with pain that was never ending, and it seemed as if the cancer would never let her go. The pain medication that was given to her in order to “manage” her hardship only seemed to mask her ordeal. She was given three months. Three months turned into little more than a year.
When I told my husband my decision to end my life when it came to a point that I could no longer be able to care for myself, he told me I was a defeatist. How dare I give up on him and the family. After all, it wasn’t my life I had to think about, and how dare I be so selfish.
Usually when one talks of euthanasia, it’s taboo. How dare one commit a sin against God, or take their life. It’s wrong. Quite frankly, when one has been given the sentence of being terminal, you only have one option, and that’s death. You can die a death that will be excruciatingly painful, and can take months, or even years to die from. Or, when the pain becomes unbearable, you can choose to die at peace.
No one should have to suffer, and I guarantee that if many people saw the suffering that one has to go through when dying from a disease like cancer, or a degenerative disease, perhaps you would change your perspective. You can’t eat. You can’t sleep. Your hair falls out in clumps, your skin dries up and flakes away at the lightest touch. Pain is experienced on a new level. It’s as if your body knows no boundaries when it comes to tolerance. And try as you might to squash that beast, you cannot get rid of the pain.
It often amazes me when people become enraged with the idea of euthanasia. I mean, I have met some people that are supportive of the idea. But whose life is it anyway? The right to die with dignity, and to die peacefully from a terminal illness is a right that anyone should have. And let’s get something straight. There is a difference between suicide and euthanasia. A person who commits suicide does so because there is something wrong with them psychologically. A person who chooses euthanasia does so because they want to die in peace without suffering anymore.
I think most people would want to die a good death. It is ironic to think that euthanasia stems from the Greek language eu (good) and thanatos (death). I have lived a marvelous life. I’ve lived to see many beautiful things, including the birth of my children. But God knows that they should not have to suffer along with me. Believe me when I say that I absolutely love my family. But a person with a terminal disease is not the only person who suffers. The family often times stands in the background, glimpsing a world that they cannot change or make better. I never want my family’s last visions of me to be one with screaming or incoherency.
There will come a time that my quality of life will no longer keep me in sustaining health. And medical care is quite expensive in the long run, when you take in all the visits to the hospital, on top of medication, and care, and so forth. Who wants to become a burden to their family?
In the end, all life comes to death. It shouldn’t be feared, or considered an evil. People have the right to so many other decisions, such as the termination of life (i.e. abortion), the refusal of medical treatment, and such, that it shouldn’t be forbidden for a competent, terminally ill person to embrace a dignified death of their choosing.
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Post Commentclay hurtubise
On December 31, 2008 at 9:04 am
Interesting take. Personally I have dealt with a lot of death, both personally and through the hospice I use to volunteer at. Unbeknownest to most, euthanasia occurs farely commonly in todays society. Often a heavy dose of a narcotic is given to allow the person to die peacefully.
The line between suicide and euthanasia is a fine one. When a person is dying from cancer, the physical and emotional toll is obvious. The anguish a person suffers from depression is actually a physical problem, the lack, or inability to use, chemical neurotransmitters. Currently the standard treatment works in only a percentage of the population.
I agree that euthanasia should be legalized and hope that people understand mental illness is no different from other disease states-it is fundamentally a physical problem showing itself through ‘mental’ effects.
Thanks,
Clay
Bren Parks
On December 31, 2008 at 10:31 am
Every one hated Dr. Kevorkian, but I felt he was doing a service to these people who asked for his help. I would hate to feel that I had no choice.
Lauren Axelrod
On December 31, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I agree with Bren. I was quite younger when the whole Kevorkian thing came a round. I would never want my parents, loved ones, or my self to have to live in pain when the suffering could end sooner.
Chris Stonecipher
On December 31, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I have to be honest an say that I voted no on Inititive 1000 because I am unsure on how I actually feel versus what is appropriate for the suffering person. Morally, I felt that I can’t honest vote yes on a maybe feeling.
Your article opens my eyes to life choices. Well written and I am sorry that you had to experience this in person.
Bless you my friend and have a Happy New Year.
Chris
Lauren Axelrod
On December 31, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Blogging this my friend. Hope you don’t mind.
R J Evans
On January 1, 2009 at 3:22 pm
We will end the suffering of animals but not of humans. The points made here are more than valid. If someone can make a living will that states that they should be allowed to slip off this mortal cool in a peaceful and dignigied way then that would advance our society – as long as there was sufficient legislation in place to ensure that this would not be taken advantage of by unscrupulous relatives! I for one certainly don’t want to linger when I am either unaware of myself or my surroundings or indeed if I was in so much pain that life became intolerable. Great article.
Suffering from depression
On January 2, 2009 at 1:48 am
Why should euthanasia be limited to those terminally ill?
Why not let someone suffering from emotional illness end their lives, is their suffering any less real to them.
Glynis Smy
On January 2, 2009 at 1:41 pm
As a nurse I saw death come to many in various forms. As a neice,cousin, grand daughter, sister in law, daughter in law and friend, I saw death come to many in various forms, out of those deaths 90% were slow, painful deaths. I took several injured animals to the vets, they died with dignity and in peace. My view? This article was brave, honest and openly shared, my view is with the author.
Roger Whittle
On January 3, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Thank you for putting all this so clearly and sincerely. It is strange that we are willing to entrust soldiers, policemen and probably others, to use their discretion to kill,but not Doctors, or people who know and love someone else. My father died in agony and slowly. I would have done anything to help him come to terms with the certainty of death and to give him a more peaceful end.
Keep writing please!
Jenny Heart
On January 6, 2009 at 12:46 pm
You are a very compassionate thoughtful person. Your feeling are truely seen through your writing. I’m not sure about everything you wrote. I do believe that if your brain dead, then I know your family shouldn’t feel guilty about pulling the plug.
C Jordan
On January 17, 2009 at 10:35 pm
This is a very intelligent article.
The rest I’ll pass on in private
maranatha
On January 23, 2009 at 12:32 am
Good for you to stand up for what you believe. I agree with you, and thought you did an excellent job putting it into words. As with anything else done for the good of people, this should indeed be a legal recourse – as long as it is not abused or used to unfair advantage. That, I think, is what stops most people on this issue – the probability of it being used unjustly.
Anonymous
On February 15, 2012 at 4:54 pm
I second the comment by “Suffering from depression.” Besides the irrational pseudo-moral arguments, the old “only god can give a life; only god can end it again” (apologies to Gene Pitney), however, there’s big $$$ to be found in lifelong “treatment” of mental defects, big $$$ for Big (Funny) Pharma.
Second also the comment by Clay that “mental illness … is fundamentally a physical problem showing itself through ‘mental’ effects.” This in itself is fundamentally a problem with our medical industry (since IMHO health “care” is by now a misnomer): we have “specialists” who isolate individual parts of the body as having problems within themselves, and who by and large still don’t treat mental defects as physical defects, even though the brain is just another organ of the body, like the heart or the pancreas. Your pancreas doesn’t affect your behaviour, necessarily; however, distress in one area can and does inevitably cause mental and emotional stress “upstairs,” or at the very least a decrease in tolerance of the daily bombardment of external stressors people face. IMHO depression of the mind is no different to me from weakness of the heart or a digestive disorder.
In our fast-paced society, though, it’s not so simple, much less affordable by all, to eat organic foods, bike to work, get regular exercise, and so forth… plus, some people are just born with some big-time cracks in the walls of the human attic just like they’re born with Type 1 diabetes, congenital heart failure, blindness, etc. Or horrible things happen — rape, war, abuse, addiction, etc. IMHO if X is causing a person to suffer and there’s really no hope, then by all means should s/he be allowed to go ahead and do whatever’s necessary to end the pain for good. A competent practitioner familiar with these kind of solutions should be allowed to prescribe whatever’s necessary or even to administer the treatment so as s/he doesn’t “botch the job” and cause even more problems for him/herself. And the only person who’d get to decide whether there’s hope or not is the person who’d be doing him/herself in.
I’m of the opinion that there ought to be a sign posted on every maternity ward in the world, translated into the respective language of the location where it hangs: “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” Head to Dignitas or Planned Parenthood instead, and become a member of the 42 club: Death is the ultimate answer to all the questions of life, the universe and everything.