REYNOLDS: The Right to Die

A brave 29-year-old woman ended her own life on Saturday in her Oregon home. She was not suicidal; she had a terminal illness. In January, Brittany Maynard received a diagnosis of likely stage 4 glioblastoma, a brain tumor that left her with six months to live. Every doctor she spoke to told her there was no hope and that her death would be a slow and painful one.

Maynard took matters into her own hands by moving to Oregon so she could make use of the Death with Dignity Act and choose how she dies. On Saturday, after she had completed her bucket list, she was able to take life-ending medication and pass away peacefully in her home with her family by her side. Her right to death gave her the option to live the rest of her life freely.

Not everyone is as lucky as Maynard, who was able to move to another state to receive proper care for her terminal illness. As of right now, only three states have enacted a Death with Dignity law and allow physician-assisted suicide: Oregon, Washington and Vermont. There are many dying patients all over the country who don’t have the option of choosing to die humanely.

Terminally ill patients should have the right to choose physician-assisted suicide as a healthcare option. It’s not about giving up, but respecting the patient’s autonomy and life. It may seem kind of backwards, but if the rest of a patient’s life is going to be miserable, painful and burdensome, ending it before it gets bad is the respectful and dignified choice.

Modern medicine has created an obsession to preserve life. We preserve life until the very last second, despite the patient being incapacitated and in pain. One must wonder if we are preserving life or prolonging death.

Some critics of the Death with Dignity laws argue against physician-assisted suicide on the grounds that suicide is wrong. Physician-assisted suicide isn’t about killing anyone who asks to be killed. There is a rigorous application procedure a patient must follow to request physician-assisted suicide. The patient must express their request multiple times over a period of at least 15 days. Two different doctors must deem the patient mentally competent and given a six-month or less prognosis.

Even with the various safeguards, I believe that patients making the decision to request physician-assisted suicide have spent a lot of time thinking about it. They are required to have at least two opinions about their diagnosis, but I’m sure many get more.

Maynard explains that she was not suicidal, but her illness was not curable. Her options were to slowly suffer and die terribly from her brain tumor, use chemotherapy to treat it in vain and suffer awful side effects or live the rest of her life to the fullest and die as painlessly as possible. Terminally ill patients have made an informed decision based upon the fact that they are feeling more ill and more pain every day. They just want the right to die with dignity.

Physician-assisted suicide differs from regular suicide because most people who are suicidal have hope left. They will continue to live for many more healthy months after they receive treatment for their mental condition. They attempt to kill themselves as a result of a chemical imbalance or a perceived sense of hopelessness, regardless of the reality of the situation. The reality of the situation is that terminally ill patients are going to die soon and usually painfully.

Other critics say that choosing when to die is too close to “playing God.” This argument can be dispelled because most modern medicine tries to play God. Planned C-sections allow us to choose when we want to give birth. Surgeries allow us to extend our lives. We have already reached a place where we have the technology to interfere with God’s plans. We might as well let people embrace the afterlife with dignity.

Another fear of legalizing physician-assisted suicide is abuse of the system that may result in what is essentially legalized murder. This is a reasonable argument, but regulations around the system should keep abuse from happening. Physician-assisted suicide would just be one of the options that a patient could choose. Doctors shouldn’t be allowed to pressure anyone into receiving it, and they should be discouraged from suggesting it. It should be the patients’ decision using the knowledge given by the medical professionals.

Terminally ill patients should have the right to die on their own terms, instead of suffering from the disease that already shortens their existence. It seems like a silly distinction that doctors can give patients enough painkillers to make them dazed, confused and essentially incompetent, but not enough to stop their suffering altogether.