Ever since Dr. Kevorkian assisted some who wished to end their lives rather than face the inevitable ending at the hands of some dreaded disease vs. taking control, I have been perplexed to say the least.

Today a young lady Brittany Maynard living with a horrible brain tumor ended her life.  I am saddened by this and I grieve for her and her family.  I don’t know them but I know of them and have followed this story.

It has been said that if you want to know someone, read their book.  If they don’t have a book you can read their Facebook, blogs, and or other writings that they have shared.  In many ways we know people better today because, many of us share by writing here on blogs or Facebook, or what have you.

I would have liked this person.

She was courageous in the face of death, fearless from what I could tell.  I am certain that she had her weak moments and cried until the tears were gone but, she faced her killer, and took control.  This is something that I would do; I recognize this and have total empathy for her.

I read some of the “post” by these “people” who hide behind anonymous names and are self-righteous.  These people are trolls and have no courage.  If you are going to comment, grow a pair and use your name!  And by the way, if you cant say anything nice just don’t bother, who the hell died and made you king?

They talk about this person going to hell because she violated the 6^th commandment.

Properly translated; “that thou shall not commit murder.”  Murder is killing someone with malice. That begs the question, can you murder yourself?  I suppose if you hated yourself and planned it out, one could call it murder.

I do not believe that Brittany did that however.  I do not think that she was a coward and I believe that her method of dealing with her illness was a choice made by a sane person who chose to end her life while she had the means to do it, rather than die in horrible pain and anguish and literally wither away.

Let’s visit this from a legal standpoint for just a minute.

Currently if you are dying of cancer or some other horrible disease and they put you into Hospice care, the method of dying is basically to deprive the body of all liquids and food for the amount of time it takes for the organs to shut down due to toxins in the body and the lack of sustenance. Yes, they say that they control the pain with drugs but since the person can no longer verbally communicate, in many cases, we really have no idea if we are controlling the pain or not.  Since they are quite and unable to do anything we may be controlling our pain and “feelings” over what is best for them.  We are acquiescing to some arbitrary law made up by politicians regarding taking ones life.

Nobody should be forced to stick a gun in ones mouth, or jump from a high point or in front of a bus to take control! We force their hand with stupid archaic laws!  Brittany and her family were forced to move to Oregon!

So, death by starvation and deprivation of all fluids vs. taking some barbiturates’ that overwhelm the body’s ability to function.  For you religious zealots out there who magically think that there is a difference, you are still committing suicide either way you go, one way you just suffer for a lot longer than the other.

I would point out that we treat our pets and prisoners on death row more humanly than we treat the terminally ill.  Once your time on death row is up, you are put to sleep before paralytics are administered to stop the body from functioning.  Do we love our pets more than we love each other?

So here is the conundrum and the slippery slope that, so many fear.  At what point do you have to be at before you can request some doctor to prescribe a lethal dose of barbiturates?

Brittany wanted her death to matter.  She wanted to be part of a “death with dignity law” passed in this country and in each and every state.  I think that it is time to break free of these chains that hold us to puritan ideals of what is life and who has control over it! We need to start the narrative in each and every state.  No, this is not about Sarah Palin’s “death panels” as the person to make the final decision, should be the patient. Not some group of doctors or politicians.

This is not hard!

• Does the person have a terminal illness?

Don’t tell me that life is a terminal illness as I know it is terminal, but not an illness.

• Can the pain and illness be managed to afford the person a quality of life?
• Quality of life is subjective and should be left to the person to define.

If the answers are yes and no respectively, than the person in question should have the right to request to die with dignity when they are ready to do so.

How hard is that?  Put the legal mambo jumbo to it, call it Brittany’s law, write it up, and make it happen!

To my fellow Christians out there, there is no sin that God cannot forgive. There is in fact no sin that a True Christian can do, that cannot be forgiven by God. We have no business putting ourselves in his place, and we certainly have no right to judge anyone and in fact are told not to.

With this in mind pray for the family of Brittany and her friends.  Re-post this if you will, so others can see this and act as they see fit.  Change.org might be a good first start..

-Best