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Death with Dignity Is a Human Right (Or Should Be)
by Daniel Faris

Brittany Maynard had a story to tell the nation. But more importantly, she had a question to ask: Are we not entitled to die on our own terms?

At 29 years of age, Brittany was a doting mom to two dogs and had been married only one year. She and her husband, Dan, had been trying to start a family when constant headaches prompted Brittany to seek medical attention – an effort that led to an unexpected and devastating diagnosis of brain cancer. Before we discuss Brittany’s story further, let’s look at the current definition of death with dignity and work from there.

Death with Dignity Defined

Legally speaking, death with dignity is “a medical practice in which a terminally ill and mentally competent adult requests, and a doctor prescribes, a life-ending medication the person self-administers when and if they choose.” Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act was the first of its kind in the nation and helped pioneered the burgeoning national movement.

Brittany Maynard’s own campaign for death with dignity began after she underwent a partial craniotomy and a partial resection of her temporal lobe; her tumor had returned, and it was even more aggressive than before. Their somber prognosis promised her poor quality of life in the small window of time she had left – roughly six months.

After extensive research and deliberation, the beautiful newlywed with the beaming smile chose to die on her own terms. For Brittany, the opportunity to avoid harrowing treatments and prolonged suffering gave her some much-needed peace of mind: it was a detour from adding more unnecessary pain to both her and her loved ones’ lives.

Brittany ended her life in the company of her husband and family on November 1st, 2014, but her resilient strength and advocacy both remain; in just a few short months, she managed to ignite a firestorm of debate on death with dignity and human rights. The Brittany Fund was named in her honor.

Freedom of Choice?

Unfortunately for the rest of us, choosing death is not a right afforded to most terminally ill patients in the land of the free. Only five states (Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont, and New Mexico) provide legal death with dignity options to their terminally ill residents who have less than six months to live. Brittany, a resident of California at the time of her diagnosis, chose to leave the state and relocate to Oregon in order to assure that her final wishes were entirely hers to make.

Closing a Generational Divide

Until Brittany Maynard’s disclosure of terminal illness and subsequent advocacy work, right-to-die arguments primarily centered on elderly and vulnerable adults: a demographic that often escaped the collective radar of younger generations. Brittany’s youth and vibrancy sparked interest from her peers, and so far the public has thrown their support behind Brittany and the social movement that survived her: according to Gallup polls, 70% of surveyed adults agree that death with dignity should be a right granted to those battling terminal diseases.

Arthur Caplan, head of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York University, penned an op-ed piece in Medscape Business of Medicine on the role Brittany’s story has played in drawing the Millennial generation into the ethical conversation on death and dying. “Brittany Maynard, because she’s young, vivacious, attractive, a newlywed, has a dog, and is a very different kind of person from the average middle-aged or older person who has to confront issues about terminal illness, changes the optics of the debate,” Caplan wrote. “Now we have a young woman getting people in her generation interested in the issue.”

Trials of Legislation

Once Brittany relocated to Oregon, she joined forces with death with dignity advocacy group Compassion & Choices. This partnership, however, was faced with backlash from pro-lifers who strongly oppose any form of doctor-assisted suicide. Brittany’s photos showcased such a lively and youthful woman, which seemed to increase the fervor of adamant pleas from pro-life groups asking her to reconsider her decision. Maynard, however, stood strong when confronted with their opposition.

In defense of her right to death, Brittany Maynard shared a hopeful glimpse at society’s Death with Dignity debate in her personal op-ed piece for CNN, writing that, “I hope for the sake of my fellow American citizens that I’ll never meet that this option is available to you. If you ever find yourself walking a mile in my shoes, I hope that you would at least be given the same choice and that no one tries to take it from you.”

As Caplan discussed in Medscape, “Critics are worried about her partly because she’s speaking to that new audience, and they know that the younger generation of America has shifted attitudes about gay marriage and the use of marijuana, and maybe they are going to have that same impact in pushing physician-assisted suicide forward. She may change the politics here.”

Seven states have introduced death with dignity legislation since 2013; they include Kansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Compassion & Choices is working to add California to that list, and initial polls indicate that two-thirds of voters in The Golden State support the measure.

Catholic Opposition

Despite the high levels of public support, right-to-die propositions have failed in legislation primarily due to opposition from the Catholic Church. Much like abortion, doctor-assisted suicide is considered an immoral practice by Catholics, who have funneled millions of dollars into blocking death with dignity measures nationwide.

Massachusetts’ legislative proposal, which was originally backed by an estimated 60% of the state’s residents, still failed in 2012 after TV campaigns emerged that were funded by Catholic groups and archdioceses across the country, including the Knights of Columbus and the Archdiocese of Boston.

Continued Advocacy

Continued education on right-to-die proposals is certainly necessary to the overall mission of Death with Dignity. As Professor Ronald Green pointed out to CNN, physicians are not (contrary to popular belief) actively involved in physician-assisted suicides. Doctors may prescribe the lethal dose of barbiturates (which are, understandably, a very carefully controlled substance), but they do not administer them, therefore leaving the decision of when (and if) the medication will be consumed entirely in the hands of the patient. Simply having access to the medicine is often comforting to terminally ill patients, including Brittany Maynard, who expressed before her death that she had experienced “a tremendous sense of relief” after obtaining the prescription.

At only 29, Brittany lived a life of great accomplishment and bravery, and her words echo her mission. “I would not tell anyone else that he or she should choose death with dignity. My question is: Who has the right to tell me that I don’t deserve this choice? That I deserve to suffer for weeks or months in tremendous amounts of physical and emotional pain? Why should anyone have the right to make that choice for me?”

Until death with dignity legislation is successful in every state, our divided nation must find a way to justly answer Brittany’s lingering questions.

Daniel Faris is a freelance blogger and journalist from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He covers political trends on Only Slightly Biased. You can also join his alter ego over at New Music Friday for discussions about progressive music, or follow him on Twitter.

graphic via shutterstock.com