Editor: I am disturbed that so many people, young and old, feel it acceptable to end their life with the help of a professional and call it dying with dignity.
Twenty years ago a column appeared in a major newspaper that bore the headline, “If seniors had their way, euthanasia would be law.” I quote from that column: “There isn’t a senior alive today who doesn’t worry about ending up with some form of dementia, about whether or not their money will last as long as they do, or visualizing writing the final chapter of their lives drooling in a wheelchair in an impersonal nursing home.”
I now quote (with a few minor changes) from the letter I wrote in rebuttal and which was published in The Times in January, 1995. I feel the same way today.
“As a senior I do not worry about any of these things. What I do worry about is people who advocate legislation making euthanasia law. If I reach any of the stages of debilitation mentioned, I will still be a human being, capable of giving and receiving love and, I hope, still precious to someone.
“If I live to an advanced age (family history suggests I might), will I one day catch my loved ones in an unguarded moment, with a look of weariness or impatience in their eyes? If the law says I have the legal right to end my life, will I feel I have to do it for their sake?
“My mother lived into her 96th year. Her mind was clear to the end, but she was bedridden during the last few weeks of her life. Did she see (oh God, I pray not), the fatigue and weariness on my face at times? As stressed as I was, I could not live with myself if I thought she had ever contemplated taking her own life for my sake. As many times as I had to turn away to hide my tears, I still considered it a privilege to have been given the opportunity to care for an aged parent.
“And who has ever decreed that we are to have no trials or adversity in life? I do not agree with prolonging life by artificial means. But there is a vast difference between withholding life support and promoting assisted suicide.
“We do not have the right to end a life, not even our own. God gave us life, and only He has the right to decide when it ends. Everyone is here for a purpose and perhaps, in some cases, that purpose is not fulfilled until the last breath is drawn.
“To this senior, dying with dignity means dying with the grace to accept the circumstances and the time that a higher power than myself has decreed that I will.”
Doris Riedweg,
Langley
