If you haven’t heard it yet, this is the story of Brittany Maynard, a woman 29 years of age who has chosen physician-assisted suicide on Nov. 1, 2014. She has a grade 4 glioblastoma multiforme (brain tumor):
Many people are on her side; of course, many others are not. Some merely condemn the suicide, while others try more gently to talk her out of it, like this dying cancer patient:
I’m with Maynard on this. She doesn’t want to experience increased suffering and have her family watch it happen. It’s her decision. She had to move to Oregon to carry it out since only 5 states allow it.
I’ve been trying to find out how I can get involved in the effort to make this legal in California. I don’t want to have to move if I’m ever in her shoes. I totally support her decision.
I’m saddened that she has to make the choice, and I imagine a lot of it is because of fear. I understand why.
In his book “Being Mortal”, Dr. Atul Gawande relates that the healthcare system doesn’t address people’s fears and needs when they face a serious or fatal illness. Nobody asks an old person or a sick person what they want to do at the end of their life; we just shut them away and take away all autonomy.
We don’t reliably give the sick and dying relief from pain. Our system doesn’t protect their families from devastating medical expenses. We don’t even manage to get families the assistance they need to care for the dying at home, which is to me, awful.
So, yes. I can see why she’s made the decision that she did.
I think our system may have failed this young woman, and many others.
I just happened to catch one of Dr. Gawande’s videos on YouTube the other day while looking for vids on Brittany.
What I cannot fathom is the sheer number of people who comment that Brittany is going to hell for her suicide because only god has the right to decide when life ends, that it’s going to destroy her family, or that she should fight for her life.
If I could respond to all of them, I’d say that we already make lots of medical or health decisions on our own, her family would also suffer while watching her deteriorate if she sticks around to the bitter end, and that there is apparently no effective cure for a stage 4 glioblastoma multiforme. Were I in her position, I don’t know that I’d have much fight left in me, with the tumor and the meds taking their toll.
I hope I’m brave enough to do this one day if I’m in the same situation. I salute Ms Maynard. My wife and I have talked about not wanting to linger on and on, sucking the life and money out of family members for just to hold off the inevitable for a few minutes longer. There just doesn’t seem to be a good time or place for must of us to make this call.
Courage is sticking it out and fighting to the last breath, not immediately and permanently ceasing your existence out of fear and pain, and it is a sign of a society that is decadent and in decline when the latter is praised over the former.
When people find themselves in situations like this, we ought to be bending heaven and earth and dedicating every resource available to curing their ailment or allowing them to live their life in maximum peace and comfort, not encouraging them to off themselves because we don’t want to pay for it.
Seriously. Heroin should be legal for people in the final stage of cancer. My father was in too much pain to sleep, until he finally had so much nerve damage from metastatic cancer that he couldn’t feel much of anything. He couldn’t walk, and needed a diaper as well, because of the nerve damage, and died three weeks later.
One of my oldest childhood friends died of a glioblastoma when we were 34. It’s a very sharp decline. I managed to visit him one last time before he died-- about 4 months before he died. My son is named for him.
And how do we help a terminally ill person who only has a couple of months to live? How do you help someone when all that person has to look forward to is pain and anguish and sickness?
It was a terribly sad situation. Thank whatever higher power you believe or don’t believe in that she had her family’s support and love throughout her ordeal. If I’m ever in a situation like that, I hope I’m brave enough to make the same choice.
All that being said, I believe the decision to end one’s life should only be for someone who is terminally ill. If that person is shown to be competent of his situation by two mental health professionals, and making the decision of his his own free will, then he should be allowed to end his life through medical measures.
Give them freedom from pain for as long as possible while taking full advantage of the opportunity to learn from them so that we can progress towards a future where no one has to live with that diagnosis.
Wanting to kill oneself is inherently a sign that one is not competent of their situation.