I have recently
read two books that deal with the subject of death with dignity formerly known
as physician assisted suicide. Right after I read Five Days Left which I recently
blogged about, the news came out about Brittany Maynard.
This is the woman with inoperable brain cancer who moved to Oregon. In
Oregon it is not illegal if you decide to end your life for medical reasons.
In the book Five Days left, the main character has Huntington's Disease. This is a disease for which there is no cure. Over time you loose your ability to basically do everything. This woman who has so much support and love from her family, a family that is willing to take care of her during her illness must make a very hard choice. Her choice is to live and slowly slip away from everything that makes her who she is or to end her life.
The second book is Me Before You. Again the main character is facing a life where he can do nothing for himself having been injured in a car accident leaving him a quadriplegic. He is in and out of hospitals where due to modern medicine he remains alive. In the book he contemplates his choices.
A year ago my dog was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. He was our second child, our baby, our joy. As I watched him in pain and slowly losing his ability to be him I knew we had to make a decision. A few days after Thanksgiving I came home from work and found him under the table breathing heavily and in pain. I saw it in his eyes. I felt like he was pleading with me to make the pain stop. I gave him pain meds the vet had given us and held his head in my lap until my husband got home. We got him in the car and drove him to the vet. The vet told us he would only get worse and so my husband and I had the conversation on what to do. I made it easy on my husband convincing him that allowing our baby to die peacefully in the doctors office would be the best thing we could do for him. The vet had this room with a comfy couch and a fireplace and my husband, myself and the dog all shared the couch. It was so peaceful and he died knowing we were there and loved him.
I think those who choose this option are brave. It so goes against human nature. You want to fight for life and hope you can get better. The truth is sometimes you just can't. You fight as long as you can and as long as your quality of life is acceptable to you. After that it should be up to you. I ask myself if I was faced with this decision what would I do. Would I have the courage to make the decision. My answer is I don't know and I hope I don't have to be in the position to make the choice.
A year ago my dog was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. He was our second child, our baby, our joy. As I watched him in pain and slowly losing his ability to be him I knew we had to make a decision. A few days after Thanksgiving I came home from work and found him under the table breathing heavily and in pain. I saw it in his eyes. I felt like he was pleading with me to make the pain stop. I gave him pain meds the vet had given us and held his head in my lap until my husband got home. We got him in the car and drove him to the vet. The vet told us he would only get worse and so my husband and I had the conversation on what to do. I made it easy on my husband convincing him that allowing our baby to die peacefully in the doctors office would be the best thing we could do for him. The vet had this room with a comfy couch and a fireplace and my husband, myself and the dog all shared the couch. It was so peaceful and he died knowing we were there and loved him.
I think those who choose this option are brave. It so goes against human nature. You want to fight for life and hope you can get better. The truth is sometimes you just can't. You fight as long as you can and as long as your quality of life is acceptable to you. After that it should be up to you. I ask myself if I was faced with this decision what would I do. Would I have the courage to make the decision. My answer is I don't know and I hope I don't have to be in the position to make the choice.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-brittany-maynard-effect-how-she-is-changing-the-debate-on-assisted-dying/2014/10/31/efc75078-5df0-11e4-8b9e-2ccdac31a031_story.html
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