Soon we will get the chance to vote for or against I-1000; it proposes that we should have the opportunity to die with dignity.
I think we all want that when the time comes. But I-1000 says that it should be legal to end one’s life by self-administering a lethal dose of medication prescribed by a doctor who agrees the patient has less than six months to live.
That of course is suicide or “self murder,” as the German word Selbstmord so aptly describes.
So is there really dignity in taking one’s own life?
How dignified is it to end ones life and deny family and friends to gather, pray and care for a dying loved one during his/her last days?
How dignified is it not to require psychological testing to ascertain state of mind of a dying person?
How dignified is it to falsify the death certificate of a person who died of suicide by naming the cause of death as other than suicide?
How dignified is it to tell a terminally ill patient that the insurance will not pay for life extending medication but will pay for life ending medication?
Many of us have dealt with our own thoughts or those of loved ones of wanting to die rather than go on with pain and suffering. And that is part of living. There is help in maintaining dignity in dying without self murder.
Last May I found out firsthand how today’s palliative and comfort care gave comfort and dignity to a dying member in our family. It was a celebration of a life that ended, naturally.
Bernie Wittgens
Kent
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