Reader endorses ‘Death with Dignity’ ballot question
By Canton CitizenDear Editor:
Believing that only an informed electorate can govern themselves properly, the Canton Council on Aging sponsored a forum on the all-important last event of our lives: the act of dying.
Dr. Marcia Angell, who teaches medical ethics at Harvard School of Medicine and is a leading proponent of this bill, says that the ballot measure is aimed at providing a voluntary choice for terminally ill persons who are in pain that palliative or hospice care can’t relieve and whose doctors say they have the mental competence to choose to end their lives (Patriot Ledger, Oct. 17). Those of us who believe that we own our own bodies, that there is no ethical reason for suffering for its own sake, have been able to get lists of drugs that, without this bill, we can stockpile to effectively end our suffering without botching it by not taking enough or not taking it properly. Dr. Bruno Bettelheim, a leading pediatrician, chose to remove himself from this life by taking these drugs, and further guaranteed success by putting a plastic bag over his head drawn tightly enough that, once unconscious from the drugs, he would suffocate with no pain.
I have seen people with cancer metastasizing all over their bodies who screamed for death, and on the other hand, my own grandmother, bedridden from a stroke at 94, suffering for 10 years and praying, “Lord, take me” with no one to help her out of this life — forced to lie there and suffer.
Death can be a deliverance from the double-edged sword medical science has given us: drugs and surgery to prolong our lives far beyond anything we would call “living,” merely existing with tubes and needle pricks, and the hideous dependencies of being an invalid. But the best benefit of this law is that we would have a legal choice as to how we leave this world without harming those who help us.
As is true for most laws, this one would require some fine tuning, but the evolved citizens of Oregon and Washington have had remarkable success (i.e., no abuse) with their Death with Dignity laws. Only 596 patients have availed themselves of this right since 1997, showing that its use is only one more choice of many ways to end life. The scarcity of the law’s use is not the reason it should not be provided. If only one man speaks the truth, it is still the truth even if a world of people believe otherwise.
We are very appreciative to the Council on Aging for sponsoring this meeting. I hope we have more events such as this in our new Senior Center, which we are eager to move into.
Alice Brown
Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=16908
Posted by Canton Citizen
on Oct 25 2012. Filed under From One Citizen to Another, Opinion.
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