I was looking at online news and magazine articles the other day when I came across those regarding Brittany Maynard of Portland, Oregon. At the age of 29-years-old she became a public figure for choosing to participate in Oregon's Death with Dignity Act. She chose to end her own life after being diagnosed with brain cancer. This I know is a very polarizing topic, much like the discussion surrounding abortion or any other morally complex topic.
Last spring Maynard was given six months to live having been diagnosed with stage four glioblastoma. In an interview with People magazine she said: "My glioblastoma is going to kill me and that's out of my control. I've discussed with many experts how I would die from it and it's a terrible way to die. So being able to choose to go with dignity is less terrifying."
She continued to tell the magazine, "For people to argue against this choice for sick people really seems evil to me. They try to mix it up with suicide and that's really unfair, because there's not a single part of me that wants to die. But I am dying."
To me this doesn't seem like it was a decision taken lightly. She didn't want to die but the reality was her life was coming to an end and for her the decision of leaving this world through death with dignity was the right choice for her. She spoke with her family, they all accepted her choice. In fact she moved with her husband, mother, and stepfather to Oregon in order to be allowed access to the state's Death with Dignity Act.
So, on Nov. 1, with family surrounding her, she passed away. But not before making the most of her life by travelling to Alaska, British Columbia, Yellowstone Park, and taking a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon.
For some people living through the pain is something they are determined to do, while for others choosing to pass away before succumbing to intolerable pain before death is their last wish.
Upon looking into arguments for and against this choice I discovered that the main focus of concern is on doctors promoting euthanasia and detracting from palliative care, while putting added pressure on elderly individuals to give up their lives because they feel they are being a burden on their families.
I told my mom that I was thinking of writing on this topic. Without telling her I was pro-choice, she had already agreed with my opinion as long as it was regulated that for some people it is the right choice. She then told me about being with my grandfather and when he passed away years ago. She was with him at the time and told me his breath was becoming difficult, it wasn't that he was in pain struggling for air, but he was dying and taking his last breaths.
He lived through the pain and difficulties of attempting to overcome lung cancer, he fought, but was unsuccessful. I was only about seven-years-old or so and don't remember his last month very clearly, but my mom said that he was suffering from so much pain that he was doped up on enough morphine that he didn't even know who anyone was. She then asked me if this was right, to drug someone into an almost comatose state on their deathbed.
What was right? Had he been given the choice as the woman in Oregon had, would he have chosen that or would he have continued on the same path he ultimately lost his life on?
The concern about pressures on elderly, however, are valid and if this topic is discussed in Saskatchewan would there be a way to ensure choice for those who want it and protect those who feel pressured?
As of April 2014, four states in the U.S. Have legalized physician-assisted suicide. Oregon, Vermont, and Washington have legalized the act through legislation, while Montana is legal through court ruling.
The precedents of Montana, Vermont, and Washington includes a minimum age of 18-years-old, six or fewer months until the individuals expected death, and two oral (at least 15 days apart) and one written request to the physician. So, if these are followed would it put pressure on elderly. These stipulations actually make elderly unable to choose it unless they have been "diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months."
