Recently, a 29-year-old woman from California, Brittany Maynard, moved to Oregon. This move had tremendous importance. Brittany had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. The doctors said that in a matter of six months, it would take her life. Maynard moved to Oregon, where the law allows terminally ill patients choose when to die, whereas the California the law does not. Maynard wants the power to choose to die instead of enduring the level of pain which will accompany this cancer. This law in Oregon, the Death with Dignity Act, makes so much sense that I wonder why it does not exist everywhere.
This law acknowledges dignity and free will. The Declaration of Independence states that people have “certain, unalienable rights:” life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If one’s life no longer allows them to pursue such happiness, who has the authority to deny the wish to end it?
Unfortunately, for Wisconsinites, authority rests with a Wisconsin statute which states, “Euthanasia is not condoned or authorized by Wisconsin law, nor is any affirmative or deliberate act or omission other than to allow the natural process of dying.” Sorry folks, if you live in Wisconsin and you receive a medical diagnosis of a disease or illness which will cause great suffering before inevitably ending your life, you get to stay alive. You have the privilege of dying a “natural” death.
Not only that, but another Wisconsin statute says, “Whoever, with intent that another take his or her own life, assists such person to commit suicide is guilty of a Class H felony.” In April of 2005, Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison tried to bring the issue to the floor, saying, “This is not a case of whether or not you’re going to die, you are going to die. The question is how are you going to die? And this bill gives the person who’s dying one more option.”
The title of the Oregon law says it all: death with dignity. Call me crazy, but I believe the person living with this life-threatening should have the choice.
This law relieves someone of pain and suffering and gives the patient a way to die with dignity. As college students, many of us have lost a loved one: a grandparent, a great grandparent, an uncle, a parent, a close friend. Think about the people you love. If one of them suffers from a life-threatening situation filled with pain-wracked agony, do you want to see them live like this day after day after day waiting for the inevitable? Or if so desired, would you want him or her to have this option?
My grandfather recently passed away under similar circumstances. After battling bone and prostate cancer for over 19 years and receiving two hip replacements, he returned to the hospital with no hope of recovery or to ever go anywhere but a hospice bed.
One day, with his oxygen very low he told my mother, “Get the doctor; I want to die.” All of us had the opportunity to say good-bye: myself in Wisconsin and my brothers in Texas and Calgary via Facetime, my mom, her sisters and my cousins right there. I am very grateful that he lived in Montana, one of the five states with the “right to die” protection and that compassion reigned; it took less than eighteen hours for my grandpa to find peace instead of many months.
Through the miracles of science, we have developed a myriad of tools and medications which allow us to prolong life. Years ago, cancer, the flu, pneumonia, diabetes would have taken its toll much quicker than today. We have managed to extend lives, sometimes into a situation like Brittany Maynard’s. Soon, because she’s alive, she will suffer greatly.
Maynard has set the day when she will take this medication to end her life: Nov. 1, 18 days before her 30th birthday. In her final days, Maynard is spending time with family and lobbying for the Death with Dignity Act to spread further across the world. Maynard had this to say about the act, “Right now it’s a choice that’s only available to some Americans, which is really unethical.” She also said, “I believe this choice is ethical, and what makes it ethical is it is a choice.”
I could not say it better myself. It is a choice; a personal choice made by a competent individual. The choice to die is the individual’s; not the illness’ or the government’s. The individual controls the individual’s life – a compassionate courtesy that the people in Wisconsin and the nation should be granting.
Nolan Beilstein ([email protected]) is a sophomore intending to major in journalism and math education.
