Death with Dignity Needs Support
By Cynthia Parent, The Rutland [Vermont] Herald, April 14, 2006
Opinion
Imagine you are at a party, you are having a good time when suddenly you trip, spill your food all over you and crack open your head on the table on the way down. You go to leave, but others at the party say "No. We don't think so. You go when the party is over." Outrageous? Yes, but a simple analogy that illustrates our lack of freedom to chose to die if we become terminally ill.
Our Vermont House Human Services Committee is about to vote on the death with dignity legislation. This legislation in effect gives you the right to "leave the party" when you feel it's time to "go," not when others who are having a grand 'ol time say you can "go."
I support the death with dignity legislation, and believe that those who actively work against this legislation are those who gain financially by prolonging the life of those who are terminally ill. As the field of medicine has advanced to keep us alive ... it often can only keep us alive in states of being that are often only hell on earth.
This legislation defines a democratic society. Those who do not feel that death with dignity choice is right for them, for religious or other reasons, obviously will not be impacted, as this is not a law that enforces death with dignity. Rather this legislation will offer the option only to those who believe, as a free member of our society, that it is solely a Vermonter's choice to decide when we have suffered enough and wish to die.
A government that tells a person how they will live and die is not a democracy it is a dictatorship. The argument that such legislation will open up possible abuses is absurd, as we know that even the very best legislation that has been passed still is subject to those who corrupt, misuse and abuse it. If our goal were to only allow perfect legislation to pass, we would be a lawless country.
Please ask your legislator to contact colleagues on the committee to urge a favorable vote.
Cynthia Parent
Middletown Springs
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