“In a spirit of compassion for all, this manifesto proclaims that every competent adult has the incontestable right to humankind’s ultimate civil and personal liberty-the right to die in a manner and at a time of their own choosing. Whereas modern medicine has brought great benefits to humanity, it cannot entirely solve the pain and distress of the dying process. Each person deals with death in their individual way. Which way is determined by their health, their ethics, and personal living conditions.” –Derek Humphry, co-founder of the Hemlock Society and author of Final Exit.
How we die is a question that concerns us all, especially as we age and face serious illness or the declining of health of our loved ones. On November 1, 2014, twenty-nine-year-old Brittany Maynard ended her life surrounded by close friends and family. Her decision to end her life on her own terms has brought the issue to national attention and galvanized the right-to-die movement (also called “death with dignity”) in the United States.
Diagnosed last January with brain cancer, Maynard went through surgery only to find out the cancer had progressed to stage four and that she had only months to live. Knowing that the progression of the disease would causee untold pain and suffering to herself and to her loved ones witnessing it, Maynard and her husband made the decision to move to Oregon to take advantage of it Death Dignity Act. Her controversial decision to end her life with lethal drugs prescribed by her physician, and to speak publicly about it, has catapulted the right-to-die movement into the collective consciousness and could lead to a watershed moment on this issues.
Outside the United States, aid-in-dying laws exist in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, with a groundbreaking law recently passed in Quebec. In the United States physician-assisted death is currently legal in Oregon, Montana, Vermont, and Washington State…
Read the full article by Tone Stockenstrom in TheHumanist.com.
