Ever wonder how you’re going to spend your final days on earth? What if you had the opportunity to plan out your very own perfect passing? Now, what if you had absolutely no choice? One thing that I’m certain of is that the day when I get to use my E-ZPass and head toward the white light at the end of the tunnel, and I don’t mean the Midtown, I’d like to know I left this place with dignity.. What if we celebrated the choice to die surrounded by the people we love , heck why not throw a huge party and remember all the good times, pop open that bottle of champagne and toast to a great life and even better afterlife where the party never stops!



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For the most part, we as humans have the opportunity to pick certain paths we want our lives to head towards. Lifelong partners, friends, family (the ones we can tolerate, of course), which pair of socks we want to wear in the morning, and what car we drive, are all things we have the natural born right to include in our daily life decisions. On the other hand, cancer, disease, and illness, whether acquired or born with, are not things we look forward to living with. Imagine if you were born or diagnosed with a terminal illness that promised nothing but agony and intractable pain every waking moment of your life. If the opportunity was presented, would you choose to leave this world on your own time or let it be taken from you without warning; it’d be so sudden that you may never get to say those final words to your loved ones or look into their eyes and smile one last time.



Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide pose a threat to our modern-day society and the legalization of this practice has been a topic of debate for years. For some reason, people have an issue with the ultimate liberty and the right to die in a strategically planned setting. What if that terminal patient was promised certainty, . . . a promise that they wouldn’t have to suffer anymore, their loved ones wouldn’t see them in a state of constant emotional and physical distress, or possibly avoiding it all and choosing death sooner than later and never experiencing the deterioration of their life?



This blog wasn’t put together with the intention to offend any kind of higher power that could be believed to bring us into this world and take us out, but rather to surface the question: In the state of a grueling medical condition or birth disability, if given the right, would you choose when you wanted to die with the assistance of a trained medical professional?

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In a world of  modern technology, contemporary ideas and liberal thoughts Physician assisted suicide and euthanasia still has yet to be accepted.  The thought of choosing your time of death seems to frighten many people who are apposed of it, yet to those who want to end their lives are living with certain medical condition that they can no longer bare or know their deterioration process has just begun.

As humans we take charge of our lives every single day by making certain decisions that help pave the way for our future.  Why not be given the right to end our life? Physician assisted suicide and euthanasia abolishes the fear of the unknown for a person who is in a terminally ill state, or suffering from a debilitating handicap.
Ensuring that once the Euthanasia Is administered and death is inevitable it is giving that person the right to end things on their terms, how they want it, and not how everyone wants it, because the fact of the matter is no one will know or feel what that person has been going through or will be going through expect for themselves. So who are we to say they must stay alive against their own will?
Picking our significant others, deciding on what we will be having for dinner, and finally agreeing to bring another life into this world are decisions that are made by people every second of the day. These decisions all point us in different directions on where the next minute may take us, but what about the person who does not want to experience the next minute? What if their future minutes was filled with pain and suffering that also carries over to their loved ones because they see them in that state. Granted not everyone may be mentally competent to give the okay to end their life, but if they were and fit a certain criteria of reasons why one should be allowed to end their lives prematurely who are we to say they aren’t allowed to?
In a country where they abolished slavery laws, granted women the right to vote, give the option for someone to terminate a pregnancy, and slowly but surely give a gay couple the same rights as a heterosexual couple one would think that they would be open to the idea of Physician assisted suicide and Euthanasia, after all its not murder and would be done in a tasteful and professional  manor under the supervision of a licensed professional.
In the state of Oregon on October 27,1997 they enacted the “Death with Dignity Act” which allows a person who is diagnosed terminally ill the right to voluntarily end their life with the assistance of a trained medical personnel.  In order for one to be allowed this option they must go through a series of medical and physiological screenings to make sure what they have is terminal and that they are in the right frame of mind.
As of January 7th,2011 the Death with Dignity act in a 10 year span had given 903 prescriptions for the lethal medications. Out of the 903 patients  an estimated 505 patients died leaving 398 patients alive. Whether they decided not to go through with the lethal medication or  it didn’t work and they washed their hands with the idea these numbers show that not everyone who is diagnosed with a terminal illness wants to take their lives before their sickness does. Physician assisted suicide and Euthanasia is not for everyone but it may be for some, and by giving them an option on whether or not to live or die is giving them control of their life that the medical condition can not take from them, almost as if they are cheating the system.
Many people have surfaced the question that sometimes many of these diagnoses are wrong and people do in fact live longer then expected with their medical condition, but when the doctor is giving them an estimated time of survival these are only based on an average of patients and how long they lived for. No two people are built alike,  one persons body maybe able to withstand the medical condition and another cant, but these patients are told in the doctors office that no time line is permanent and the numbers that are being given by the doctor is based on research. Initially it is up to the patient whether or not they want to take the chance and wait it out or let their medical condition progress until they can no longer take all the treatments, side effects, and stressors it puts on themselves.
Another scenario to look at other then a medical condition being diagnosed is when a tragic accident happens and changes the life of someone forever. Take a young 25 year old male who is extremely athletic and loves life to every extent. Now take that 25 year old  and mix him with a horrendous car accident that leaves him as a quadriplegic and bed ridden for the rest of his life yet still mentally competent and aware of everything. The young man has the right to refuse medications, test, and any thing else he wants, No longer eating  this issue is brought up to the medical board of directors for possible placement of a peg tube which will be inserted in his stomach to give him tube feeding which he is clearly refusing, but now the notion of depression gets thrown on the table leading to the assumption that the patient is not in the right state of mind.
The board approves the Peg tube placement and pro longs a life that this young man does not want for himself. Yes his parents may be content that their son is still alive and living in a nursing home, but to that young man he died in that car accident and no one will ever be able to understand the pain he will be going through everyday of his life. Who are we really making happy?, the board of directors because they prevented a 25 year old man from allowing himself to lead his life into deterioration with the refusal of any medical treatment, the parents who have a son who is alive but living in a nursing home, or the young man who does not want to live?

To some legalizing physician assisted suicide and euthanasia is playing the role of god  but to others its granting them peace during their hardest hours. In reality no one can speak for the people who are going through pain, depression, endless medical treatments, or knowing that their life will be completely different in the next couple of months due to a medical condition unless they themselves have experienced it.  Granting people their right to die, being able to leaving their families with a peaceful smile on their faces instead of a blank stare as a result of the after math of a fast paced complicated code blue in a hospital may not be the way one might want to be remember in there final minutes of life.  This question can be thrown back at the opposes, who is really playing god the person that wants to die or the people that are keeping them alive?

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