Sad And Moving Story
Brittany Maynard, a woman with brain cancer will end her life November 1, surrounded by her husband and others who love her. Watch the video at the link. If I were in her circumstances, I would take the same path.
Maynard and her family moved to Oregon, where assisted suicide is -- as it should be -- legal. It is your life -- it should be yours to live (and end) as you wish, and if you need assistance dying, the person who you choose to assist you should not be prosecuted.
And yes, of course there should be safeguards, but people often use the argument that there can be abuses to argue against people having the most important sort of autonomy over their lives.
Billy Hallowell writes at The Blaze:
Maynard's decision is certainly a controversial one, leading to moral and ethical questions surrounding the decision to end one's life. But she insists that she wants nothing more than to live and that she isn't suicidal."I've had the [end-of-life] medication for weeks. I am not suicidal," Maynard wrote in her CNN op-ed. "If I were, I would have consumed that medication long ago. I do not want to die. But I am dying. And I want to die on my own terms."
She went on in the piece to argue that it's important for people in her shoes to be given the option to control their own destinies.
"When my suffering becomes too great, I can say to all those I love, 'I love you; come be by my side, and come say goodbye as I pass into whatever's next,'" she said. "I will die upstairs in my bedroom with my husband, mother, stepfather and best friend by my side and pass peacefully. I can't imagine trying to rob anyone else of that choice."
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/10/03/Assisted-Suicide-Out-of-Control-in-Netherlands
Isab at October 8, 2014 8:23 AM
"It is your life -- it should be yours to live (and end) as you wish, and if you need assistance dying, the person who you choose to assist you should not be prosecuted."
Absolutely agree with you there. As long as it's her choice.
It's when a doctor, relative, or bureaucrat starts pushing that decision based on how they view the worthiness of your life that scares me.
JFP at October 8, 2014 1:43 PM
There are reported abuses in Holland...so...I should not be allowed to have an assisted suicide if I want one?
Amy Alkon at October 8, 2014 4:29 PM
Amy, there are people who eat too much ice cream. Therefore, you shouldn't be able to have any, either. Don't you understand, it's all for your own good?
Pirate Jo at October 8, 2014 5:10 PM
There are reported abuses in Holland...so...I should not be allowed to have an assisted suicide if I want one?
Posted by: Amy Alkon at October 8, 2014 4:29 PM
You have no more *right* to a perfect death than you do a perfect life, especially when you get third parties involved.
particularly when you want to change policy for a tiny percentage of people who are not getting exactly what they want when they want it.
Isab at October 8, 2014 5:29 PM
Let us try the consistency alarm:
Capital punishment is bad enough to be totally abolished because one innocent man might be executed.
Mercy killing should be allowed even if someone is euthanized against their will.
Yep, alarm went off.
Mostly because of the other, enormous, pre-existing stupidity: the idea that if a government agency is involved, individual, personal decisions will magically be handled perfectly, despite the FACT that the officials will never miss a paycheck or a meal for poor performance or failure.
Radwaste at October 8, 2014 6:34 PM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/10/sad-and-moving.html#comment-5211138">comment from Pirate JoAmy, there are people who eat too much ice cream. Therefore, you shouldn't be able to have any, either. Don't you understand, it's all for your own good?
Fuck paternalism. I'll kill myself when I want and I'll probably go out with my snout in some dark chocolate ice cream -- extra fatty, I hope.
Amy Alkon
at October 8, 2014 10:20 PM
Gonna hand it a bit to Raddy on this one.
Government is fine with individual consent as long as they don't see it as threat to their power.
Having the ability to make your own choice about your life seems to threaten them.
This particular story is very sad, but, in a strange way, also uplifting, because she gets to choose.
Wasting away physically, that I could handle, though I'd hate to have to depend on someone else.
Wasting away mentally, however, scares the living fuck out of me. If I were faced with that, I would definitely choose to die first.
there are some who call me 'Tim?' at October 9, 2014 2:51 AM
Wasting away mentally, however, scares the living fuck out of me. If I were faced with that, I would definitely choose to die first.
Unfortunately, that's the very situation where you won't get to choose, because by that time you're not competent to do so. My mother-in-law is in the advanced stage of Alzheimer's; her brain does virtually nothing but keep her heart and lungs going. We know, from talking to her when she was healthy, that she didn't want to live like this. But even if she lived in Oregon, I don't think we'd be allowed to terminate her.
Rex Little at October 9, 2014 9:46 AM
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