By Karen Neill
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Life is about the decisions we make, and we make decisions that determine our future every day. However, the problem and the controversy surrounding this fact is: what do we do when those decisions are about the way we end our life? The battle for the “right to die” when terminally ill is ongoing and will include casualties either way.
On Jan. 1, Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman, was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer and it was then that she started considering physician-assisted suicide as an option. Shortly after, she was told she had six months to live. She was confronted with death far too early in life, but she chose the path she thought was best for herself, which is all we can really ever do. In People Magazine, Maynard explained, “My glioblastoma is going to kill me and that’s out of my control. I’ve discussed with many experts how I would die from it and it’s a terrible, terrible way to die. So being able to choose to go with dignity is less terrifying.” Maynard died on Nov. 1, 2014, after her doctor prescribed her a fatal dose of barbiturates.
When people are faced with this sort of decision, it is not anyone else’s choice to make. It is between the patient and the doctor. Nobody, especially strangers, should have the right to tell a person that the path they want to take is unavailable because of their own beliefs and morals. The decision to end your own life is hard enough; people deserve to be able to make it in peace. If you respect them as an individual person so much that you want them to live, respect their personal decision to die. Trust when I say that nobody takes this matter lightly, not the strangers, the loved ones, the doctor and especially not the person themselves. In the end, a life is lost. But society should have compassion towards those making this choice. It is a brave thing, to want your body to still be your own in the end.
We should not be trying to decide the rights the terminally ill have over their own bodies; we should instead be trying to make them feel as comfortable as we can, letting them know that we care in ways other than saying that we know what’s better for them.
Of course, there are those who are terminally ill who choose to face their illness head-on. This again is a brave decision and one I respect greatly. People have their reasons for choosing what they do; the point is that they should have the right to choose freely.
