I. Are we really free?
a. Are you free when you are told that you are going to die soon, but there is a law in place that prevents you from deciding how you leave this earth?
b. Are we free if a politician, religious group, or hospital is able to decide our fate for us?
c. In the United States we celebrate our freedom to include our freedom of religion, which also means freedom from religion.
d. Are we really practicing these freedoms if we vote against someone else who is terminally ill from choosing how they die?
e. If a terminally ill person who is mentally competent decides they want to die peacefully, they aren’t hurting anyone else. One could argue they are saving those who love them from also experiencing prolonged suffering from watching their health slowly decline until death.
II. Britney Maynard at the age of 29 took her own life, legally, on Nov 1st 2014.
a. When she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer her world fell apart.
b. She explored all treatment options but at this time there is no treatment that could save her.
c. After finding out she only had about 6 months to live she researched some more.
d. Once she accepted her fate, her research shifted from how to beat the cancer to how will she be able to die peacefully.
III. Society, stigma, and death
a. I think that society has a stigma towards assisted death due to the way we are raised.
b. If you are in the military or a veteran, you have more than likely received training to see the signs of someone who is depressed and may take their own life.
c. We are taught that suicide is something that should be prevented at all costs, it’s only when we experience the prolonged suffering of a loved one or hear about it that we may consider unique situations where it is justified.
IV. A question of ethics, morals, and is it really test?
a. According to deathpenalityinfo.org there are 32 states with the death penalty
b. I find it hard to believe on ethical or moral grounds for so many states to put criminals to death, but deny the choice peaceful death to someone who is terminally ill and mentally competent.
c. We will all die, it’s inevitable. Some people will pass peacefully, some will pass while enduring extraordinary pain and suffering.
d. Regardless of someone else’s beliefs, those personal beliefs should not be passed onto those who do not share them.
V. Britney had a peaceful death, no one else was harmed.
a. She had to go through great lengths to have a peaceful death
b. She had to obtain an apartment, a driver’s license, register to vote, and get a new team of doctors in Oregon just so she could have the option of a peaceful death.
c. She is one of the few that had enough funds to make that move and take those steps in time to have a peaceful death.
VI. What Britney wanted to avoid and what I have witnessed first-hand are one in the same.
a. Britney and patients like her, with medical aid will only have a prolonged death that includes several severe symptoms.
b. The options outside of death with dignity would be provided by hospice.
c. Hospice’s goal is to make you as comfortable as possible.
d. When the symptoms reach an extremely severe stage the patient is given pain killers, narcotics and muscle relaxers.
e. The dose of these medications are continually increased to ensure comfort. The patient goes from someone who is consciously aware of their surroundings to being so drugged that they can’t tell the difference between a tissue and the sleeve of someone’s shirt.
f. Eventually they are under the influence of such a high amount of drugs that they are in or near a comatose state. This is not prolonging life, it is only prolonging death, death is something that most people would want to be swift, and as pain free as possible.
References
choices, c. a. (2015). https://www.compassionandchoices.org/. Retrieved from https://www.compassionandchoices.org/
deathpenaltyinfo.org. (2015). www.deathpentaltyinfo.org. Retrieved from http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org
people.com. (2015). www.people.com. Retrieved from http://www.people.com/article/brittany-maynard-death-with-dignity-crusader
sfgate. (2015). www.sfgate.com. Retrieved from http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/New-Brittany-Maynard-video-released-as-advocates-6158579.php#photo-7089574