DEATH WITH DIGNITY: Positive data on why it works...

“But I do know that it is my life, it is my death, and it should be my choice” said a physician with ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease after he received a prescription for drugs that he could use to end his life.

This was part of an excellent story on the front page of the New York Times by Katie Hafner titled: IN ILL DOCTOR, A SURPRISE REFLECTION OF WHO PICKS ASSISTED SUICIDE,  August 12, 2012.

Washington State and Oregon have assisted suicide laws or death with dignity laws. The issue is still hotly debated today but a few other states are placing the issue on their November ballots.

Opponents of the death with dignity law painted frightening scenarios where poor people would be forced to commit suicide by their families when they could no longer afford end-of-life care.

It is important to see what actually is happening in states where you can die with dignity; law in place since 1997 in Oregon and 2009 in Washington State. People who have used the law are white, well educated and financially comfortable and they are not in excruciating pain; they just want to control their deaths as they controlled their lives…make sense?

The laws stipulate that two physicians must certify that the individual has six months or less to live and the lethal medication must be self administered which can be tricky for ALS patients who cannot control their muscles.

Having gone through a long and tortuous death of my father-in-law (92) who begged me to let him go, I can see value to such laws and most of all humanity. We all deserve a “good” death if possible and this law makes that possible.

I realize that the Catholic Church considers suicide a sin but I do not look at death with dignity as suicide in the normal use of the word; death is imminent anyway but you get to choose the time when you want it to come.

I hope the real-life experience in states like Oregon and Washington will show critics that the law is actually a very humane law and is not being misused as they so vehemently warned would happen.

It is time to allow us the option of a  death with dignity.

Related articles

• US states warm to death with dignity - Sydney Morning Herald
• In Ill Doctor, a Surprise Reflection of Who Picks Assisted Suicide
• Doctors Don't Assist Suicide, Barbiturates Do
• A Sick Doctor Shines Light on Assisted Suicide
• New laws allowing physician-assisted suicide opposed by doctors and Catholic church
• A surprise reflection of who picks assisted suicide
• What Oregon's experience can teach us about assisted suicide