The Terminally Ill and Physician-Assisted Suicide
To the editor:
Imagine being a terminally ill patient, who is beyond human care
and in excruciating pain. A neurosurgeon once showed a group of
physicians and an ethicist a picture of a Vietnam casualty who had
lost all four of his limbs in a landmine explosion. The catastrophe
had reduced the soldier to a trunk with his face transfixed in
horror.
Because of such devastating internal injuries, the soldier was
not expected to make it through the year. In any event, this
patient dies — whether by acts of nature or by the intentional
acts of his physician.
On a whole, our social policy should allow terminal patients to
seek help in death, because in a free society, such as ours, it
should be a fundamental right to choose the time and manner of
one’s own death. The right to choose the course of one’s death is
as fundamental as the right to choose the course of one’s own
life.
Many times, I think that we safeguard our society, by not
allowing controversial laws to be passed, because we are frightened
of the change that might take place thereafter. While no one can be
convinced of the outcomes of such a law being passed, death should
be an individual’s personal decision, not a decision of the
government or of a religion.
If a family has the right to take a loved one off of
life-support, and as a result, the patient dies, doesn’t it seem
unfair that we can’t have the option of dying prior to being placed
on life-support in the first place? Could relief possibly come
sooner for terminal patients if physician-assisted suicide was
legal?
M. Westbrook
Fort Collins Resident
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