Subj : Death Wish
To   : All
From : Lee Lofaso
Date : Tue Nov 04 2014 04:26:09

Hello Everybody,

She got her wish.  Death.  At the ripe old age of 29.
She had approval from her husband and her family.  As
well as from her doctor, who gave her the pills to do
herself in.

Brittany Maynard was terminally ill, given only a few
short months to live, and was in much pain and suffering.
She ended her life in Oregon, one of five states in the
US that allows doctors to help assist the terminally
ill of sound mind to do so.

Our society chooses to condem people who decide to end
their own lives, and forbids doctors and other health care
workers to help them do it.  Even though five states have
recently chosen to allow doctors to assist patients to end
their own pain and suffering, society continues to give
a cold shoulder to the idea.

Five states - Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont and
New Mexico.  What is wrong with the rest of America?

"She died as she intended - peacefully in her bedroom,
in the arms of her loved ones." - Sean Crowley, spokesman
for the advocacy group Compassion & Choices

Why should anybody be denied the right to die with dignity?
Why should anybody be forced to endure more pain and suffering
than is necessary to maintain a decent standard of life?

When it becomes an impossibility, or undue hardship, to
maintain a quality of life worth living, then an individual
should have an absolute right to end his/her own life.

Suicide is illegal.  In every state.  The reason for such
laws is to protect insurance companies.  That is why doctor
assisted suicide is also illegal in every state.

Except in five states, where the termnilly ill of sound mind
can choose to end their own life, with the help of a doctor.
As long as the terminally ill individual does it alone, such
as swallowing or injecting the drugs.

No more accidental overdoses for folks in those five states.
They can off themselves on purpose - and insurance companies
are still on the hook for paying the beneficiaries.

"First do no harm" - Doctors give death row inmates the juice,
and now are allowed to give terminally ill patients the means to
give themselves the juice.  Or happy pills.  Whatever works.

More than 750 people in Oregon have chosen to off themselves
since December 31, 2013.  Most of those folks were old geezers,
the median age being 71.  But six of those people were under
the age of 35.  I wonder what society would think if one of
those people was a child, say of about age 5 or 6?

What about a baby born without a brain?  Would it be okay
for a doctor or a nurse to off the baby?  I mean, the baby
would not be able to do it alone, needing help from an
adult.  And I doubt that mommy (or daddy) would be up to
the task ...

How many terminilly ill people move to Oregon to die?  Nobody
knows since the state does not keep track, or really much care.

"I think in the beginning my family members wanted a miracle;
they wanteda cure for my cancer.  When we all sat down and looked
at the facts, there isn't a single person that loves me that isn't
a single person that loves me that wishes me more pain and more
suffering." - Brittany Maynard, interview with the AP, 10/8/2014

She told the AP her husband and other relatives accepted
her decision to end her own life.  The question is, when will
society as a whole ever accept the right of each individual
to make such a decision.

--Lee

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