My Death, My Way

Camryn Sippy
Imagine you are terminally ill: you have mere months left to live and there is no possible way to
save you from dying. With each passing day, your suffering is getting worse along with your
quality of life. You are given the choice between being put on heavy, debilitating medications
that will induce a partial state of comatose while also drawing out your death further diminishing
your quality of life, or voluntarily ingesting lethal medication to end your suffering with peace of
mind in knowing it will be over. By choosing to take a lethal prescription, you are choosing to
take control over your own body and condition as you near your final days.
Aid-in-dying methods are argued to be harmful to the greater population because they present
suicide as acceptable, but terminally ill patients should be allowed the option to quickly and
painlessly end their suffering when their pain becomes too unbearable. The Right to Die law is
one that allows terminally ill patients, with six months or less to live, the ability to obtain lethal
drugs via prescription from their physician in order to end their life when the suffering becomes
too unbearable. Unlike other methods such as hospice or palliative care where the patient is put
on enough medications to ease their pain yet lengthen their ultimate death, aid-in-dying methods
allow the patient to choose when they pass away so that they dont have to suffer the further
deterioration and emotional pain of a slow passing.
In states California, Vermont, Washington, and Oregon this law is mandated by the state, in
Montana and New Mexico, it is mandated by a court ruling. Currently in Colorado, state
lawmakers are attempting again to pass death with dignity as an end-of-life option. Is allowing
patients to choose death with dignity actually threatening the general public? It is not an easy
process to obtain these medications based on the strict rules for getting a prescription of this
kind. Each state has its own set of requirements for obtaining these drugs, but they are all along
the lines of the patient making both an oral and a written request to their doctor and consulting
physician. The doctor and physician then decided whether or not the patient should be granted a
lethal prescription. Thus, it prevents any person from walking into a clinic to get a prescription
and commit suicide.
According to the VOX article, California Has Legalized Physician-Assisted Suicide, assessing
the physical health and mental health of the patient is the first priority. If a patient shows signs of
feeling depressed or a burden to others, they are less likely to be granted a lethal prescription due
to their mental state. A study done recently in Oregon shows that since 1997, only 752 people
have passed away from using lethal medications. In 2013, for every 10,000 people that passed
away in Oregon, 22 of them used an aid-in-dying prescription. This goes to show that the
legalization of these aid-in-dying methods doesnt easily threaten the general population since so
little people actually receive the medicine.
If a person is suffering an extreme amount due to a terminal illness or condition that they have
been diagnosed with, people like doctors or government groups should not be allowed to make a
decision for them. As written in the New York Times article, Denying Someone a Peaceful Death
Can be Unethical, psychologist John M. Grohol states that, Some doctors believe that since
their primary responsibility is to heal, helping someone along to a quickened death is
contradictory to their oath. But when doctors confuse or equate healing with the length of life,

they ignore the importance of a persons quality of life. We violate an individuals liberty and
sense of self-ownership by not allowing them to make a decision they feel is best for their body.
As University College London political philosopher Gerald Cohen states, each person enjoys,
over himself and his powers, full and exclusive rights of control and use, and therefore owes no
service or product to anyone else that he has not contracted to supply. Every person has the
right to make decisions for themselves and shouldnt have them taken away as they are on their
deathbed.
It is inhumane and immoral to try to prolong a patients life if their body is so diseased that there
is no cure or promise of recovery. It is not acceptable to force a person to live out the rest of their
limited time in extreme pain or in a medically-induced coma from the amount of medication they
are taking. Compassion & Choices organization volunteer Anita Freeman talks about her
experience with Death with Dignity: I watched my 66-year-old sister die in pain from Stage 4
liver cancer. It took five weeks and it was excruciating for both of us. As her sister was passing
away, she was not allowed to use aid-in-dying medication to end her painful passing. Her sister
spent weeks in the hospital and hospice before being admitted to palliative care facility where
she then spent seven starved and delirious days before passing away. How is it that in our
country this type of care is legal and acceptable yet methods to aid a peaceful, painless death are
not?
It is unjust for the government to have the ability to decide how a suffering person passes away.
Even though some people believe that the right to die is not the just course of action for a
suffering individual, patients nationwide should be allowed the choice of a peaceful and painless
death when they choose. If you are interested getting involved in the end-of-life options
discussion, contact the Denver-based organization, Compassion and Choices, to learn more about
death with dignity and what it means for Colorado. A patient should have the freedom to choose
the end-of-life option that works for them, not one that forced upon them at this fragile time.

Works Cited
Byock, Ira. "Doctor-Assisted Suicide and Dangerous and Unethical." The New York Times. The

New York Times, 4 Sept. 2015. Web.

<http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/10/06/expanding-the-right-to-die/doctorassisted-suicide-is-unethical-and-dangerous>.
Goodman, John C. "The Right to Die." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 29 Sept. 2014. Web.
<http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngoodman/2014/09/29/the-right-to-die/>.
Grohol, John M. "Denying Someone a Peaceful Death Can Be Unethical."The New York Times.
The New York Times, 7 Oct. 2014. Web.
<http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/10/06/expanding-the-right-todie/denying-someone-a-peaceful-death-can-be-unethical>.
Kliff, Sarah. "California Has Legalized Physician-assisted Suicide. Here's How the Law Works."
Vox. Vox, 05 Oct. 2015. Web. <http://www.vox.com/2015/9/11/9313693/california-aid-indying-legislature>.
Marcus, Peter. "Colorado Lawmakers and Possibly Voters to Consider End-of-life Legislation."
The Durango Herald. The Durango Herald, 3 Dec. 2015. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.
<http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20151203/NEWS01/151209850/0/SEARCH/Col
orado-lawmakers-and-possibly-voters-to-consider-end-of-life-legislation>.
"Physician-Assisted Suicide Fast Facts - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 6 Oct. 2015.
Web.<http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/26/us/physician-assisted-suicide-fastfacts/index.html>.
"Self-ownership." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Oct. 2015. Web.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-ownership>.