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The Best We Mortals Can Do

Oct 21, 2015
by Caroline Miller
assisted suicide, does suicide cheapen the noiton of life?, Elizabeth Soker Bruenig, euthanasia, How to Think About Your Right to Die
4 Comments

The reasons are many for moving into a retirement center while a person is healthy enough to enjoy the spa-like amenities. Nonetheless, Death is a permanent resident and is never completely hidden from view. Recently, a 101 year-old man at the center chose not only to acknowledge Death’s presence but to embrace it. In Oregon, someone who is the terminally ill or extremely old can choose suicide, provided they can administer the deadly cocktail to themselves.

In some countries, like Belgium, the law allows not only for assisted suicide but euthanasia. In the latter case, death is administered by someone other than the patient. No matter the method of exit, the presumption is the decision is a personal right. In June of this year, for example, a young woman, age 24, was allowed to commit suicide based on her argument that she had suffered from a long and debilitating depression that made life unbearable. (“How to Think About Your Right to Die,” by Elizabeth Soker Bruenig, New Republic, Sept/Oct, 2015 pg. 14) Such an early death in the eyes of some, like author Elizabeth Soker Bruenig, is an ethical perversion. The right to die, she argues is not equivalent to the right to life not only because the lives of other people are involved, but because a policy of death on demand undermines a respect for life. (Ibid pg. 15).  

I’m unclear how Bruenig arrives at her conclusion. I do know there are arguments against it. In a time of war, a soldier who throws himself on a live hand grenade to save others is a deemed a hero. His life is anything but cheapened by its end. Each of us is under a sentence of death, after all, a reason, many would argue, why life is precious.  

Habit, I think, makes us more comfortable with the idea that death should be left with governments rather than with individuals. According to the state, we have a right to die as result of war, or while attempting to stop or commit a crime, and as a punishment for a capital offense. But should a matter so personal rest with the state only? Should a person who wishes to die be denied a seat at the debate?

On either side of the argument, the consequences are dark. Forcing a person to endure pain, whether or not he or she wishes it, strikes me as cruel. On the other hand, I doubt any civil law can be drafted with enough prescience to adjudicate the rights and wrongs of death by choice in every case. For that reason, I suspect judgment shouldn’t be left to the law, alone. Perhaps it’s best to leave the tension between the state and the individual ambiguous. Society should object to the taking of a life, as proper and respectful to that life, but not criminalize the event. Ambiguity may be the best solution mortals can bring to this sad question of rights.   As to God’s rights, I cannot speak to those.  

a place of execution

guardiantv.com

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4 Comments
  1. Betty W October 21, 2015 at 9:59 am Reply
    Having recently witnessed a death totally without dignity reinforces to me that we should each have the right to choose our own end.
    • Caroline Miller October 21, 2015 at 10:19 am Reply
      Sorry something so tragic has touched your life, but you know better than many of us why governments are slowly coming to understand that the right to choose an exit is a regrettable necessity. Thank you for sharing.
  2. Pamela October 26, 2015 at 1:11 pm Reply
    I have no definitive pov, other than people should be sovereign over their own bodies. In the case of terminal and agonizing illness, I'm absolutely for the right to die. Very interesting posting, Caroline.
    • Caroline Miller October 26, 2015 at 4:16 pm Reply
      Society requires that we care about the fate of one another but, sometimes, we have to allow people to let go. Thanks for your comments Pamela.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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