The Right to Die – New York Times

The Right to Die – New York Times

I don’t understand the problem that some people have with the right to die. It seems to me any terminally ill person has the right to make that decision and come to terms with it on their own, in their own way. We choose this for our pets when there is no hope of their health ever improving, when the end is near for them and we know their quality of life is miserable. Why shouldn’t it be a choice for us as well? It’s the humane thing, to have the choice and certainly not every terminally ill patient would choose this option.

According to the most recent stats that I could find in the 8 years the Oregon Death with Dignity law has been in place 208 terminally ill people have chosen this path. That’s an average of 26 people per year.

Once again this administration is trying to dismantle the Oregon law, a law that voters there have chosen repeatedly. The original law was voted in back in 1994, and then in 1997 Oregonians voted against it being repealed.

I thought conservatives were for States’ rights? Oh wait, that’s right, the current administration is not really conservative. They haven’t conserved a damned thing. They are an extreme right wing-religious fundamentalist group who have hijacked what used to be the Republican party through propaganda and their spin machine. So they don’t really care about States’ rights and they don’t care about any individual’s rights either. They want it their way, because “their god” tells them so.

That’s why we have the separation of church and state in this country — so that religous fanatics can’t dictate to the rest of us how to live (or die) just because of their misguided religious beliefs. Having a choice means just that, a personal choice. If you’re terminally ill, but your religous convictions prevent you from ending your life, then feel free to go on suffering. The rest of the population should have the freedom to choose death with dignity, without religious extremists inflicting their twisted vision upon us. More states would probably enact similar laws if the rightwingnuts would stop fucking around with Oregon.

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Update 5-28-07 5:05pm: “From the time the law took effect in 1997 until the end of last year, 292 people asked their doctors to prescribe the drugs they would need to end their lives, an average of just over 30 a year. Most of the 46 people who used the process last year had cancer, and their median age was 74, according to a state report.”
(Source: http://www.komotv.com/news/health/7702032.html)

Also see: http://egov.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/ar-index.shtml

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