Let life end naturally and with dignity

Brittany Maynard was a young wife at 29, and she had a horrible disease: multifaceted glioblastoma. She was articulated and attractive, and we all felt bad that she had suffered. She had headaches, memory loss and convulsions, and has moved from California to Oregon, a state where suicide assisted by a doctor is legal.

She took her life, as she said, and the “Twitter sphere” is all flooded with feeling about how she “dignified” and advanced the cause of the assisted suicide movement.

I would not presume to judge the pain of Brittany Maynard or his suffering. However, I have judgments on what human dignity is, and a certain knowledge that the pain, convulsions and sufferings of this woman could have been controlled with good palliative care or palliative care.

I know that is the case, because I am taking this care for hundreds of people each year. I know that with expert palliative care, pain and suffering are not a necessary consequence of the disease, not even his illness.

There are times, although rare, when all our efforts short of a person did not relieve their pain. But these are very rare moments; Maybe only or twice in 500 patients it occurs.

When this happens, we can always treat the patient with dignity, and we can offer sedation to the point where their suffering is attenuated if it is their choice.

The disease did not reduce dignity

Dignity, in my opinion, does not translate because another person judges your life, or aesthetically pleasant, and it is not lost if a person considers you empty of quality buyout or muddled in an inconvenience. Dignity comes from the fact that we are created by a loving god.

The fact that we can be treated unworthy is a certainty. But that is not due to an unpleasant illness, pain or circumstance. No, it is human judgment and behavior, which dares to place its own estimates of the value of human life above that of our Creator.

If this young woman had participated in our palliative care program or in our Hospice house, she would have been treated with all the dignity that each person deserves. She would have had her crises and her pain controlled. She would have had the opportunity continues to reach many other people. It is cited as having said: “Get the day. What is important to you? What do you care about? What matters? Continue that, forget the rest. ”

The sadness in all of this is that because it feared the pain, feared convulsions and feared memory loss, it apparently feared that it was considered unworthy. I know that his pain and convulsions could have been checked.

Although I do not have the power to preserve the memory of patients with neurological disease, I do not think that decreases their dignity.

Palliative care can add precious moments

Is it possible that she had more beautiful, precious and important moments in this world if she had not ended her life when she did it? I think it’s very likely.

Is it possible that with expert palliative care, she could have teach us more about grace and dignity by experiencing the weight of his health down and allowing those of us in the palliative care community to do a better job to treat it, rather than reject palliative care? I believe it.

I saw it innumerable time, in patients with much more advanced disease, even a much more advanced multifaceted glioblastoma than his.

I cry his loss. If his suicide somehow strengthens the suicide movement assisted by the doctor, I cry too. He distracts us from the objective of the origin of dignity, and he perseveres the myth that pain is inevitable.

Suicide remains a choice that is mired in the center of oneself, goes beyond our value as human beings and sends the message that in one way or another to act on these ideals is higher than the thousands that the thousands make, which is to live their lives as much as possible, because so long God grants us, and never presumes to usurp this divine authority.

I believe that it is a rare person who would deem it necessary to take his life if they knew that their pain and their suffering could be controlled and that they would always be treated with the dignity which has just been a child of God.

Peace and comfort are possible

Brittany Maynard said: “Enter the day. Live every day for what matters.”

I couldn’t agree more with her. It is sad that she may not have felt how much she would have more important with a few days of life.

Brittany also said, “If you ever find yourself walking on a mile in my shoes, I hope you would have at least the same choice and no one tries to take it from you.”

No one can walk a mile in Brittany or your shoes, but know that if you are with a terminal disease, even as ugly as glioblastoma, we travel for kilometers with you. We can prevent pain. We can prevent crises. We believe that each of us is beautiful because we are children of God.

You do not lose dignity because you are sick. I learned a lot of beautiful lessons and seen a lot of incredible things when life ends naturally, even in the very last moments.

God be with you, Brittany Maynard. May God be with all of us.

Last update: August 8, 2017