Posted on 10/11/2014 11:11:40 AM PDT by Kaslin
By all accounts Brittany Maynard’s is a life well lived.
Sure, we’re not God, so we have no idea where she stands eternally. We don’t know if she’s sought the forgiveness for her sins that is found only in Jesus Christ, but we can pray that she has before it’s too late.
However, from what we can humanly see, Maynard has lived a life of courage and adventure—even climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Sadly, though, it now seems she may not live to see her 30th birthday. In April, the 29-year old Maynard was diagnosed with a stage four malignant brain tumor. She was given six months to live.
“I’ve discussed with many experts how I would die from it and it’s a terrible way to die,” Maynard told People Magazine. “Being able to choose to go with dignity is less terrifying.”
Seeking that dignified death, Maynard plans to end her own life on November 1st with prescribed medication. So much for that Hippocratic Oath. For thousands of years the taking of one’s own life has been commonly referred to as “suicide.” But nowadays even suicide is a post-modern construct, so Maynard maintains she’s not committing suicide by committing suicide.
“There is not a cell in my body that is suicidal or wants to die,” Maynard says. “I want to live. I wish there was a cure for my disease but there is not.”
I cannot imagine what Maynard and her family are facing and urge everyone reading this to pray for them during this difficult time. Her desire to avoid this suffering for her, and her husband and loved ones as well, is very human and understandable.
However, what she ultimately seeks cannot be found, because there is no such thing as a dignified death.
Death is indignity by its very nature. We were originally created to live forever, but we chose to go our own way, thus death entered into the world. Death is the result of the suffering we have caused this world, not some idle occurrence that is merely the natural way of things. This is why St. Paul writes that Christ, by rising from the grave, has “conquered the last enemy” and destroyed death. There is no death, indignity, or suffering to fear once we acknowledge the death and suffering Christ endured on our behalf to give us eternal life.
Remember when the story of a limited time to live meant going out with a bang, making your way through your bucket list, or giving inspiring speeches to those you’ll leave behind to make sure they make every moment count? Sadly, Maynard has instead decided to spend what she’s convinced are her final moments of life becoming a political cause célèbre for death.
While there is no such thing as a dignified death, there is such a thing as a meaningful death. How, why, where, or when someone dies can testify to the meaning (worth/dignity) of that person’s life. This is why we commemorate sacrificial love, because there is no greater love than a willingness to give one’s life for another. We can give no more than our own self.
By making the decision to end her own life on November 1st, Maynard is assuming she has nothing more to offer this world or her loved ones beyond that point. That is to say in essence she is playing God and making decisions as if she alone knows the future.
How does she know a loved one wasn’t going to need a comforting word from her on November 2nd? How does she know her husband might not need her support on November 3rd? How does she know she wasn’t intended to be the one that was going to play a key part in saving someone’s life on November 4th? How does she know a miraculous cure wouldn’t be discovered on November 5th? Perhaps Christ returns on November 6th and fulfills his promise to wipe away every tear from our eyes.
And why choose November 1st when she was given six months to live back in April? By making it to November at all Maynard has already defied her original diagnosis if you do the math.
I write this not to criticize Maynard, but to provoke her to move beyond her fear of suffering, and see the world as it really is and her life as it was really intended to be. We are supposed to share one another’s burdens, not see ourselves as a burden. We are to live every day as if it may be our last, not seek after and even schedule our last day.
People Magazine described Maynard as “fearless,” but ironically it seems as if her decision to commit suicide is based solely out of fear. The fear of physical torment. The fear of how it will negatively impact her loved ones. The fear of becoming undignified as a result of a terrible affliction.
These are all fears most of us cannot possibly understand, but I know someone who does. His name is Jesus Christ. He was brutally beaten beyond recognition for wrongs he didn’t commit. He carried a cross he couldn’t bear. He was nailed to a tree and died a death he didn’t deserve.
He knows what you’re going through, Brittany, and has already suffered what you fear happening to you—but even worse. For his willingness to lay down his life for you (us), he has been given all power under heaven and earth. That means he has you alive right now for a reason. He has a purpose for you to inspire and love others, and he wants them to inspire and love on you as well.
And he wants you to know that perfect love casts out all fear.
Hold on. If someone commits a violent crime using a weapon against another. They should receive the same.
Simple.
Some will judge her harshly for seeming to ‘hasten death’s hand’, but I don’t. If the brain cancer continues as expected, she will have an existence encumbered by extreme, unrelenting pain, that or stay morphined up around the clock. I’m not in that situation, and hope to never be in it.
Quick discussion as to why the Catholic Church declared suicide a sin. In the 2nd and 3rd century, there were ‘Christian’ suicide sects. They for so numerous that the church declared suicide the ‘unforgivable’ sin to discourage these sects. No other doctrinal reason.
The decision as to how to end her life, facing zero recovery and only pain, crippling hospital and doctor costs, and the emotional toll on her family, has clearly been thought out and it is not anyone else’s right to tell her no.
Very well said
Your post makes absolutely no sense
Anyone been hunting? Sure, this is Free Republic.
When you bag that deer, and it’s still breathing but in pain and suffering, do you let it continue or do you do the humane thing and end it’s suffering?
We should never force a human being to undergo pain and suffering on what we KNOW will end in death.
I would argue that God gave man the humanity to end suffering by easing the passing through the veil to paradise.
Death with dignity for murderers. Don’t keep them locked up in a degrading cell for life — dress them up in formal wear, and, following a ceremony filled with pomp and circumstance, give them a dignified death. Is that what you’re getting at?
Not usually. Most patients with this type of cancer die in their sleep.
None of the authors business. He is not her God. Government, the church, or the state have no say in this. It’s a family matter.
Not usually. Most patients with this type of cancer die in their sleep.
WOW! And the day before? The week before? The month before?
“Not usually. Most patients with this type of cancer die in their sleep. “
After they’ve gone thru the suffering and ridiculous medical expenses
I’m Catholic and I don’t know what to say. Can’t begin to imagine what has driven this young woman to such a horrific decision.
I have read in recent years that the Catholic Church in America has relented from its harsh judgement in some cases of suicide (no Christian burial, burial in unconsecrated ground) based on the theory that no one in their right mind would choose to commit suicide.
Insanity equals exoneration, so the belief goes.
Always possible to pray for a miracle.
Individuals have always worked this sort of thing out for themselves. That isn't new. The real trouble is the State of Oregon made this legal. The system will now continually expand the pool of participants to justify the law. In Belgium (I believe) healthy old people can now kill themselves because they can't bear to grow old.
I don’t believe this decision is mine to make. I don’t want any government encouraging it due to the inevitable mission creep of any such policy or law. If allowing it is good then encouraging it is better and then comes the law requiring it, under the bureaucratic mindset.
So, I believe what she wants to do is wrong, even if I understand why she wants to do it. If she wants to overdose on medication and fade out of existence rather than face the unknown and likely awful consequence of the fatal disease she has, she can certainly do so. There needs to be no law changed, no dragging medical services into it, no moral codes undermined to achieve her goal of exiting this plane of existence on her own schedule rather than God’s.
Just don’t expect the rest of us to applaud or accept such as an appropriate response, let alone require complicity and subject ourselves to the same.
Amen!
“Died in their sleep” is a euphemism for “we found them dead in the morning and we don’t know what happened during the night.”
It would appear that Mr. Dearce’s essay rests upon his interpretation of the word “dignity”. The Cambridge dictionary defines dignity as “the quality of a person that makes him or her deserving of respect, sometimes shown in behavior or appearance” suggesting external vs. internal regard, but then lists as synonyms the words self-regard, self-respect, and self-worth which are internal reflections.
He doesn’t see any dignity in her intention because it doesn’t conform to HIS sensibilities. I would remind Mr. Dearce that it isn’t his choice or decision.
It isn’t my place to judge Brittany’s intentions - that’s between her and her God. I do (of course) reserve the right to hold and express an opinion. In reflecting on the relative merits of the dignity contained within the decision to take control over the timing and machination of ones mortality I would offer the following observations: Hijacking a passenger airline and slamming it into a building full of people - not dignified. Likewise, ramming a speeding automobile into a bridge abutment - even in the absence of physical injury to others isn’t dignified. Ending your mortality in the privacy of your home through self-medication - yea I can see that as a dignified act. She recognizes the gravity of the moment and isn’t approaching it with casual disregard. She is trying to orchestrate the act so as to minimize the resulting consequence to others. And she is taking responsibility for herself and her mortality.
No matter what it is a tough situation and a tougher decision. I pray for her.
“By making the decision to end her own life on November 1st, Maynard is assuming she has nothing more to offer this world or her loved ones beyond that point. That is to say in essence she is playing God and making decisions as if she alone knows the future”
Somebody has to say it. If she is so willing to do something as extreme as end her life why not just try cannabis oil which is not even semi extreme and maybe pair it up with oxygen therapy. People are curing themselves of cancer with cannabis oil all over the place. If it does not work in a couple of mos then she can off herself.
Woman, you want to die, go right ahead. But don’t try to blackmail me into making suicide into some kind of a cause and saying I must approve.
The only problem I have with you is your incessant yakking about it. I don’t want to hear it.
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