This past weekend, Brittany Maynard, a brave beautiful young woman dying of cancer choose the when and how of her departure from this world, ending her life on Saturday. Some call her choice "Death With Dignity" while others call it "Assisted Suicide". Myself...I wonder why others feel they have any right to have a say when a person is making such a difficult decision. Don't get me wrong, regardless of the reason behind the choice, find it very sad that someone/anyone has reached a point in their life where death is a preferable choice to living. However, surely there are times when we can all understand why someone would choose death over a life no longer worth living, choose death over suffering through the horrible pain and diminishing capacity to enjoy our life that a horrible illness such as terminable brain cancer visits upon us?
For myself, desperately trying to wrap my own brain and emotions around the concept of dignity as it relates to both life and death. As a concept, the word dignity implies that every human being (or creature) has the innate right to be valued, to receive ethical treatment. More descriptively, dignity implies that all things, all people are or should be afforded a certain level of respect and status...though politicians and society are careful not to actually define with any certainty just how much respect, status or worth any one person or group of people should be afforded. How can we have a serious discussion about life or death with dignity when we refuse to define dignity, have defined parameters of what is an acceptable level of dignity when it comes to a fellow human being.
Imagine the can of worms that would be opened if our society did the right thing, established a minimum Benchmark where every living creature in America, or in the world was guaranteed a base level of dignity (respect and status) in both their life, and in their death. Imagine someone being held criminally or civilly liable for stealing away, or destroying someone's personal dignity. Imagine a world in which we could seek an "Order of Protection" against someone(s) who is working to take away our personal dignity, being empowered to take action against those who seem bent on destroying our self worth, our self image, our implied or defined dignity. Imagine having the right to "Death With Dignity" if you find your life no longer has enough dignity to make it worth living. Isn't that truly freedom, isn't that the true measure of the concept of "Self Determination"?
Death with dignity, the right to determine the how and when of our own life should be a basic human right afforded every citizen of America, rather than a right that only exists in five states. Brittany Maynard should not have been forced to uproot her life after finding out she was dying from terminal cancer, should not have had to spend her precious time moving to a different state that would afford and respect her basic human dignity. It is my hope her brave decision to leave this world with her dignity intact starts a discussion that sees our federal government enact laws that would make "Death With Dignity" a federally protected right afforded every American.
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