A cancer patient's decision
to die
By Anthony Zurcher
Editor, Echo Chambers

Brittany Maynard says 1
November is the day she
will die.
The 29-year-old was
diagnosed with terminal
brain cancer in January,
after suffering from
debilitating headaches for
more than a year.
Following months of
treatment, and a
progressively worsening
prognosis, Ms Maynard
decided she had to change
course.
"After months of research,
my family and I reached a
heartbreaking conclusion:
there is no treatment that
would save my life, and the
recommended treatments
would have destroyed the
time I had left," she writes
in an opinion piece for
CNN.com
.
She adds that as her cancer
progresses, it could lead to
excruciating pain, despite
the strongest palliative
medication.
"I could develop potentially
morphine-resistant pain
and suffer personality
changes and verbal,
cognitive and motor loss of
virtually any kind," she
writes.
"Because the rest of my
body is young and healthy,
I am likely to physically
hang on for a long time
even though cancer is
eating my mind. I probably
would have suffered in
hospice care for weeks or
even months. And my
family would have had to
watch that."
She and her husband
moved from California to
Oregon, one of five US
states where physician-
assisted suicide is
permissible. Once she had
established residency and
proved that she had less
than six months to live, she
obtained a prescription for
life-ending medication.
She says she plans on
using it on 1 November,
two days after her
husband's birthday.
Ms Maynard has shared her
story with Compassion &
Choices, a nonprofit
organisation advocating the
passage of euthanasia
laws, and began a media
campaign, including a
YouTube video in which she
and her family explain her
situation.
At one point in the video,
Ms Maynard reaches in to
her purse and removes two
prescription bottles,
presumably for life-ending
drugs.
Brittany Maynard says in a
YouTube video that she
plans to die on her own
terms
"I know that it's there when
I need it," she says.
The video has been viewed
more than 5.6 million
times.
She says that she feels
relief knowing that she has
the option to die "on my
own terms" - and wants
others in her situation to
have the same options.
Ms Maynard's campaign
has once again stirred
debate over the morality of
physician-assisted suicide
and its prospects for further
legalisation in the US.
"Maynard may not go
through with her plans on 1
November (statistically,
most of those who get end-
of-life prescriptions don't
use them, though nearly all
report feeling peace of
mind with the pills in hand)
," writes Meghan Dawn in
the Los Angeles Times.
"But because she shared
her decision, all of it, with
the world, her legacy will be
a crucial contribution to the
conversation about how we
live - and end - our lives."
Bioethicist Arthur L Caplan
says that Ms Maynard's
story has the potential to
change the way many
people - particularly
younger Americans - view
the issue.
"A whole new generation is
now looking at Brittany and
wondering why their state
does not permit physicians
to prescribe lethal doses of
drugs to the dying," he
writes for NBC News.
"Brittany is having and will
have a big impact on the
movement to get measures
before voters or
legislators."
The ground on which the
physician-assisted suicide
debate rests could quickly
shift, he says, much as it
did on the gay marriage.
Matt Walsh, writing in the
Blaze , agrees that Ms
Maynard is "a very
compelling spokeswoman
for suicide". He says,
however, that he is
concerned by the almost
universal praise she ha
received in the press and
social media for her bravery
and poise.
"I am terrified to think that
my children will grow up in
a culture that openly
venerates suicide with this
much unyielding passion,"
he writes. "If you are saying
that it is dignified and
brave for a cancer patient
to kill themselves, what are
you saying about cancer
patients who don't?"
Several people with
terminal diagnoses have
also come forward to offer
a critical take on Ms
Maynard's decision.
"The hardest part of a
terminal diagnosis is not
knowing the timeline,"
writes Maggie Karner, who
has also been diagnosed
with aggressive brain
cancer.
She says, however, that
public policy on physician-
assisted suicide shouldn't
be centred around "hard"
cases like hers and Ms
Maynard's. The power of
life and death should
remain in God's hands, she
writes.
"Death sucks," she says.
"And while this leads many
to attempt to calm their
fears by grasping for
personal control over the
situation, as a Christian
with a Savior who loves me
dearly and who has
redeemed me from a dying
world, I have a higher
calling. God wants me to
be comfortable in my
dependence on Him and
others, to live with Him in
peace and comfort no
matter what comes my
way."r
Kara Tippetts, who has
written a book and blogged
about her experience with
terminal breast cancer,
penned an open letter to
Maynard in which she asks
her to reconsider her
decision.
"Suffering is not the
absence of goodness, it is
not the absence of beauty,
but perhaps it can be the
place where true beauty
can be known," she writes.
"You have been told a lie.
A horrible lie, that your
dying will not be beautiful.
That the suffering will ber
too great."
She says that doctors who
prescribe life-ending
medication "walk away
from the Hippocratic oath
that says 'first, do no
harm'."
She concludes: "I get to
partner with my doctor in
my dying, and it's going to
be a beautiful and painful
journey for us all. But, hear
me - it is not a mistake -
beauty will meet us in that
last breath."
Under Oregon's 1997 Death
with Dignity Act, 1,173
people have requested
prescriptions for life-ending
drugs, and 752 have used
them, according to state
records .
Ms Maynard says she plans
to record video testimony
for the California
legislature, which is
considering a similar
physician-assisted suicide
law.
If events transpire as
planned, her message to
the lawmakers likely will be
delivered posthumously.

Source: m.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-29576003

I pray d giver of life rebrands her whole system b4 d planned date

The truth is, we all suffer one form of pain or the other at some points in our lives. However, most people choose the option of hope and faith; not death.

I believe that right solely belongs to The Originator of life.

When there's life, there's hope.