Response to Death With Dignity writing
They call me a leader. They call me an innovator. They call me a miracle. In my lifetime I have achieved incredible things, done outstanding deeds and have surpassed every expectation thought-out for me. I have gone the extra mile to prove to myself, others and society that I am no different. I have sang in front of hundreds, spoken before thousands, and impacted a countless number of people. I have led schools, classmates, cities and states towards a common goal of unity. I have achieved so much in my mere eighteen years of life, that the majority of people don’t ever take the opportunity to experience. What is it that drives me to be so focused, you may ask? My drive is simply the will to live.
I have had this zest for life from the day I was born. Over the years I have achieved greatness, understanding that my years may be short. Having a terminal illness has placed perspective on my life and the way in which I view it. I have learned to monitor my health and to have a great understanding as to its current standing. By judging me, you may say that I am an exception and that I have a clear mind of what is right and wrong, therefore could rightfully judge when the appropriate time may be to give into my illness and end the pain. My question to you is, why? Why make an exception? Why deem one action right for one person and not another? Who is to judge what is right versus wrong? Who is to judge what is best for another being? Who is to judge how one individual enters or exits the world. Our whole lives we have been told that we as individual beings have the freedom to decide ‘our destiny’ and what our life will come too, but your argument undermines exactly that. I find it to be my responsibility to speak for my peers in saying the points in your writing “What about do no harm?: Suicide is not health care, and prescribing death is not a doctor’s role” are far from accurate, valid or supported.
Your point supports the government’s involvement and ability to force people to remain living just to suffer terrible pain, finishing the greatest times of their lives with the worst of days of agony. When all said and done, under current law people have no control over their death and instead are inverted back to helpless beings.
As an adult with a terminal illness, this issue