On Brittany Maynard, or the Right to Die is the Right to Be Free

A
few years ago, while checking up on the older members of my
extended family, I asked a relative if he had made any plans for
long-term care in case his health went south on him. He looked at
me and said, “I have a .357 Magnum.” Messy, I thought, but
effective. He’s still going strong, and whatever I believe about a
related need for long-term carpet-cleaning plans to match, I
respect his decision to assert control over the time and terms of
hs own demise.

That conversation came back to me this week amid the discussion,

noted by Zach Weissmuller, over 29-year-old Brittany Maynard’s
(pictured) decision to move to Oregon from California to take
advantage of that
state’s law allowing terminally ill residents access to
medications specifically intended to end their lives. Providing a
much neater option than that contemplated by my relative, that law
makes it easier for somebody like Maynard, facing a painful,
lingering death from  brain cancer, to go out instead in a
manner of her choosing.

Well-spoken and obviously thoughful, Brittany Maynard has
literally become the poster child—and video child
(s below)—of the movement dedicated to expanding options available
to people otherwise facing an unpleasant end. Specifically, this
works out as the ability to seek medical assistance free of legal
penalties for those who offer help. In Oregon, the
Death with Dignity Act, enacted in 1997, “allows terminally-ill
Oregonians to end their lives through the voluntary
self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by
a physician for that purpose.” Doctors participate only at their
own choosing—they’re not compelled to help patients end their
lives.

Which is to say, this is about the final choice that anybody can
make, and freeing others to choose to offer asistance in achieving
the chosen goal. That’s about as libertarian as it gets.

Nobody has an obligation to check out early, and many of us are
more concerned about expanding
options for extending our lives than ending them. But we all
have a right to end our lives if we please, and the vagaries of
health have been known to throw good reasons our way to do so for
those of us who are inclined to exercise control in that arena.
Allowing us to cooperate with others over the matter of freely
chosen time and manner death respects our rights and expands our
liberty.

It also may be just a bit easier on the carpet.