Let free will prevail for terminally ill patients
I support a “death with dignity” law. Not everybody needs such a law, because their death will be unexpected and quick. People with dementia, sadly, will not qualify.
But it can be a godsend for competent people suffering with terminal illness. There are many of those.
A couple problems are:
•Most, if not all, major religions teach suicide is a sin on some level.
•People who attempt suicide and fail are often thankful for the second life opportunity.
People put death with dignity in the same categories as above. But death with dignity is hardly suicide in the traditional sense.
My God-fearing grandmother, terminal with cancer, repeatedly questioned why God was keeping her alive. Looking for purpose, she believed she was to witness to unsaved family members.
Eventually she took matters into her own hands, refused to drink or eat and died days later. Many terminal patients die after days or weeks of dehydration. There is nothing especially compassionate or dignified about these types of deaths.
Selfishness (we don’t want our loved one to die), fear (of God and death) and magical thinking (don’t “die with dignity” because a cure may be imminent) are some emotions that keep healthy people from having a realistic view of the terminally ill.
Should we, however, become terminal, we should have the free will right to choose either “I’m not done; I’m going to tough it out” or “my life is as complete as it can be; it’s time for me to leave.”
George T. Mason