{"id":217,"date":"2014-10-31T22:02:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-01T04:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/what-is-death-with-dignity-or-dignity-for-that-matter.html"},"modified":"2015-02-26T23:10:20","modified_gmt":"2015-02-27T05:10:20","slug":"what-is-death-with-dignity-or-dignity-for-that-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/what-is-death-with-dignity-or-dignity-for-that-matter.html","title":{"rendered":"What is “death with dignity”? Or dignity, for that matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

CNN has an opinion piece today called \u201cMy mother deserved to die with dignity<\/a>\u201c, in which the author details her mother\u2019s 17-year battle.\u00a0 First it was stage-4 cancer, and a 6 month prognosis, which she fought, but, two years later, she faced a brain tumor, then breast cancer, and, ultimately, after a diagnosis of cancer on the spine, she killed herself with a drug overdose.\u00a0 In the meantime, her husband left her, she was dependent on an ostomy bag, and she became addicted to painkillers \u2014 all of which happened as the author was growing up, since the cancer first struck her mother when she, the author, that is, was only 8 years old.<\/p>\n

So, she says, \u201d She deserved better. She deserved to go in a more dignified way.\u201d\u00a0 And she seems to imply that this \u201cdignified death\u201d should indeed have happened upon that first diagnosis.\u00a0 Never mind that she would have grown up motherless and later, orphaned (because her father died when she was 16), she says,<\/p>\n

What kind of life was it for her children? I can tell you it was hard. I was robbed of a childhood. It was years of struggles and tears. I would never wish what I had lived through on anyone. No child should have to see their parents suffer so much.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0 And even though it was her mother\u2019s choice, at each of these treatments, to fight on, she thinks it was the wrong decision, because she had to watch her mother suffer, and she was no longer \u201cfull of life\u201d but \u201csad and had lost all hope.\u201d And the conclusion she draws, about the decision she made 17 years after the initial diagnosis, 17 years too late, in the author\u2019s opinion, is this:<\/p>\n

Dying with dignity is a brave decision to make. It\u2019s a decision that involves everyone, and it\u2019s one of the greatest gifts of love that person can give to those left behind.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0Separately \u2014<\/p>\n

There was a post on the Washington Post Wonkblog a couple days ago, with some statistics on the number, and demographics, of documented deaths under \u201cDeath with Dignity\u201d laws.\u00a0 Even the title of the post is telling, \u201cBeyond Brittany Maynard: Who is choosing to die with dignity<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

And this is my beef:\u00a0 assisted suicide advocacy groups have so thoroughly claimed the label \u201cdignity\u201d that they have deformed its meaning.\u00a0 Dignity is not about being able to walk, or live independently, and being dependent on someone else to prepare your meals, or even feed them to you, or requiring care for intimate personal needs doesn\u2019t rob a person of dignity.\u00a0 Dignity is something each of us possesses as human beings, first and foremost, and, secondly, it is our own behavior that makes us dignified, or undignified.\u00a0 To accept becoming impaired and dependent, and understand that this is a part of life, is<\/i> dignified.\u00a0 I\u2019m not saying that you are obliged to fight your disease with all your might, or, to the contrary, accept it as part of God\u2019s plan.\u00a0 But to reject dependency as \u201cundignified\u201d is wrong, and worse still is to cause others to believe that their dependency makes them \u201cundignified.\u201d <\/p>\n

Now, I know full well that I have not had a loved one die a long and painful death.\u00a0 But this tendency to say that, just as we put animals \u201cto sleep,\u201d so to should we \u201cput to sleep\u201d our loved ones, as the commenters to the CNN piece did repeatedly, because, pragmatically speaking, there\u2019s no point in continuing on, this fails to understand what it means to be human, and find dignity and value in life even in the midst of suffering and dependency. \u00a0 <\/p>\n

And I\u2019d write several more paragraphs in the same vein, but more eloquently, if I were able, but this will have to suffice for today.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CNN has an opinion piece today called \u201cMy mother deserved to die with dignity\u201c, in which the author details her mother\u2019s 17-year battle.\u00a0 First it was stage-4 cancer, and a 6 month prognosis, which she fought, but, two years later, she faced a brain tumor, then breast cancer, and, ultimately, after a diagnosis of cancer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[159,163],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-assisted-suicide","tag-dignity"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is "death with dignity"? 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