Oregon's Death with Dignity Act

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

I've been following this story for several months.  A 29-yr-old woman who has inoperable brain cancer will be using Oregon's Death With Dignity Act to end her life in just a few days, on November 1.  

 

I'm of very mixed feelings about it.  I know what the opinions from the religious factions are.  But the decision to end one's life in light of what she would be going through with this type of cancer is also understandable to me.

 

 

A young woman who has fearlessly run half-marathons and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro now faces a more daunting task: taking her own life.

But Brittany Maynard, 29, insists she's not the least bit suicidal, People magazine reports.

"There is not a cell in my body that is suicidal or that wants to die," she says. "I want to live. I wish there was a cure for my disease but there's not."

Diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, Maynard has moved with her family to Oregon so she can legally kill herself with lethal medication prescribed under theOregon Death With Dignity Act.

Experts tell her that death by stage 4 glioblastoma would be "a terrible, terrible way to die," Maynard says, and "being able to choose to go with dignity is less terrifying."

Her husband, mother, stepfather, and closest friend (who is a doctor) will be by her side when she goes.

Maynard has also joined the nonprofit Compassion & Choices, which is advocating for death-with-dignity laws in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Colorado, and California, Inquisitr reports. So far, four states — New Mexico, Vermont, Montana, and Washington — have joined Oregon in passing such laws.

The Oregon Health Authority reports that 122 people were prescribed the end of life drugs in 2013 and 71 used them to die. Others mostly died of natural causes. Some are prescribed drugs that are not used in the same calendar year.

Those who died last year ranged in age from 42 to 96 with a median of 71. Most were white, about half having earned baccalaureate degrees. The majority suffered from cancer, the report states. The time from ingestion of the drugs to death ranged from five minutes to 5.6 hours, the report states.

Oregon voters approved the law in 1994 but it was halted by an injunction lifted in October, 1997. A month later, voters soundly rejected a measure which would have repealed the act. Since the implementation of the Oregon Death with Dignity law, 1,173 people have died using the act.

Maynard says she'll help the cause by giving California lawmakers videotaped testimony in mid-October. Then, two days after her husband's Oct. 30 birthday, she plans to end her life.

"I'm getting sicker, dealing with more pain and seizures and difficulties so I just selected (the date)," she says. "I'm dying, but I'm choosing to suffer less, to put myself through less physical and emotional pain and my family as well."

 

 

http://www.kgw.com/story/news/local/2014/10/27/assisted-suicide-portland-archbishop/18025907/

[LifeHiscost]

I've been following this story for several months.  A 29-yr-old woman who has inoperable brain cancer will be using Oregon's Death With Dignity Act to end her life in just a few days, on November 1.  

 

I'm of very mixed feelings about it.  I know what the opinions from the religious factions are.  But the decision to end one's life in light of what she would be going through with this type of cancer is also understandable to me.

 

 

 

http://www.kgw.com/story/news/local/2014/10/27/assisted-suicide-portland-archbishop/18025907/

Samson, after being captured by enemy forces and his eyes put out, chose to take his own life. There are some untenable circumstance that may or may not be a result of our own poor choices. God alone,  even excluding our own wisdom, knows how best to deal with euthanasia.

 

30And Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" And he bent with all his might so that the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed in his life....Judges 16

 

32And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, 33who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,…Hebrews 11

 

…12So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. 13For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment....James 2

 

God is Love! Jesus saves!

[lukewarm]

I"m definitely in favor of this. A person can only deal with so much. God never intended for a person to end up in so much pain that taking his own life is the only way to end the pain.