Assisted Suicide

            There has been much written and said recently about assisted suicide. Is it right or wrong? The moral and philosophical sides have been much written about recently and I do not see the reason the rehash it. I just want to ask a couple simple questions in this whole debate.

            First, is this “death with dignity”? The Church has said that there is no dignity in taking one’s own life because it is a sin against God and creation and that it is a false sense of compassion. I fail to see how this is a false sense of compassion when it is all about compassion.

            Think of it this way. When you have an animal for which you care, be it a dog, cat, horse, et al. If the horse breaks a leg, do you leave it to suffer since it can no longer walk? If your dog is suffering with advanced arthritis and cannot move, do you leave it when it cannot get to its food and water or go for a walk? If your cat has a disabling disease that cannot be cured, do you let it suffer?

            The answer to all of these questions is the same – no. You put the animal down to end its suffering. This is a tremendous act of compassion, and needless to say, an extremely difficult thing to do to the animal and which had been faithful companion for which you have loved and cared for a long time. Though it may not exactly be assisted suicide (to my knowledge, no other animal other than man performs suicide), it is a manner of ending the life.

            This leads to the second question. Does the person who knows there is no hope and no chance of survival wants to continue living through the mental and physical pain for who knows how long until the end finally comes? Does this make any sense? Logically, no.

Assisted suicide amounts to the same thing as putting down an animal. It is sparing the person the agony of the final days or weeks or months or years of torment. Why do many people not want assisted suicide? Probably because they don’t want to let their loved one go. They want them around for as long as possible because they cannot stand the thought of being without them.

Nobody gains from being kept alive through this time. It is emotionally draining for both the patient and the family. There is no need for this. Then again, I can see only one place where someone or something gains by keeping the person alive. This is the health care industry who, through keeping the person alive, continues to collect the many thousands of dollars in hospital and other costs.

Brittany Maynard did the right thing as far as I am concerned. She knew she was dying and did not have long to live. For her and her family, this was a win-win decision. The only loss of course was her death, but in all other ways, the right thing was done. She was the one who not only died with dignity, but showed the utmost in compassion to her family by sparing them her final days of agony.