It’s a Dog’s Life

When I was young my family had a dog called Tina. We loved her dearly. Eventually she grew old and was clearly in a lot of pain limping around and whimpering. The vet could do nothing to help, and so after we all hugged Tina and cried a lot, my Dad took her to the vet who ‘put her to sleep’ as we did not want Tina to suffer anymore. My question is: Why don’t we humans have the same rights as dogs?

This question was brought to the fore in America last November when 29 year old Brittany Maynard, suffering incurable brain cancer, died peacefully using a prescription medicine, with the full support of her husband and mother. However, this is only possible in very few states in the USA. In Brittany’s case she and her husband had to relocate from California to Oregon where they have a Death with Dignity law. 

Right now I have no intention of dying just yet – I’m having too much fun. Nevertheless, the principle of the right to die with dignity, and the suffering of others, came to my attention through the review of a new book which I read recently. The book is Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End (2014) by Dr. Atul Gawande; and the review I read in the New York Review of Books was by Marcia Angell. Dr. Gawande reports that on average every American spends the last year or more of their lives disabled and in a nursing home, often in much discomfort either physically or mentally or both. “These days, swift catastrophic illness is the exception.” Gawande writes.

 In less developed parts of the world the situation is doubtlessly worse. What concerns me is that in the 21^st century, in a country which is supposed to have ‘separation of church and state’, there is so much resistance to a person being able to say: “You know what? It’s time for me go”, and then legally to be able to get the help to achieve that.

The reviewer, Marcia Angell, has her own story to tell. Her husband died from cancer just last June here in my state of Massachusetts. We had a referendum here a couple of years ago on death with dignity. The Catholic Church weighed in with a lot of expensive ads on TV and the measure was defeated. As a result Marcia’s husband’s end was as she puts it “unspeakably difficult” and drawn out. 

Look, if you want to lie there in pain believing that only God has the right to call you up to heaven, and that he’ll do it when he’s ready – “I’m busy right now, wait your turn.” – fine, but don’t impose your silliness on me. Sadly, only three states in the USA have provisions for death with dignity. Here in the northeast I’d have to move to Vermont. Then in the northwest there is Oregon and Washington with such legal provisions.

Even if you believe in the healing power of prayer, you surely accept that we all have to go sometime. It would be nice to think that the more evil your life has been the more you would suffer at the end, and vice versa. Sadly, it doesn’t work that way. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Julie Selsberg is campaigning to change the law in Colorado after she watched her father Charles suffer terribly in his last days. The bill that some legislators are bringing for consideration in that state stresses death with dignity, not physician-assisted suicide. Suicide means you want to die. People who are prematurely stricken with cancer, such as Brittany Maynard, don’t want to die, they just want to go with dignity. In the other 47 states where there is no such provision, then desperate people do take the law into their own hands and it can get problematic which naysayers love to pounce on. It’s time we moved into the 21^st century folks.

When my time comes, I’d rather not suffer for a long time thank you very much, just to satisfy someone else’s childish beliefs. It could also save a lot of money in hospital costs.

As I wrote in my last, also controversial, blog (I’m getting old and crotchety), it’s time for us to grow up, leave hopes in miracles behind, and embrace the factual truths that science has painstakingly revealed to us over the last few centuries;  and in this case reduce unnecessary suffering at the close of life. Je suis Tina.