Your Life, Your Body, Your Right To Choose...

Surely by now everyone knows the name Brittany Maynard unless you have been held captive in a hole somewhere putting lotion on the skin.

Seriously though if you do not know who she was, Brittany Maynard was the courageous young woman who at the very young age of 29 years old had been diagnosed with a terminal stage of brain cancer. She was faced with a tough decision to make on whether she was going to let herself, her husband, her family and her friends suffer this slow torturous death, or to decide when she knew it was the right time for her to die.

Brittany and her husband Dan moved from their home in California to a new home that Brittany had chosen to spend the rest of her time here on earth in Oregon because it was one of the few states that honor the “death with dignity” option for the terminally ill. They decided that when Brittany felt as though she was getting sicker, she would break open 100 capsules and pour them into a glass to drink in her own bed surrounded by her husband, her family and a few close friends and just drift off peacefully.

Brittany had made a decision to stop her suffering on November 2, 2014. Shortly after that was released to the media, there was speculation that she had decided to postpone her decision because she felt as though she had more time left in her. However on November 1, 2014 Brittany did induce the medication that would end her suffering with her husband, her family, and a few close friends.

Brittany had stated in her latest video message that in the past few weeks she had been getting more headaches and having seizures more frequently and more severe. She had gained a significant amount of weight in only three months time and said it was a very private thing to have to deal with and that you start losing who you are.

Brittany was a very beautiful young woman. She stated that it hurt her most when people would think that she didn’t look as sick as she claimed she was and that when she was going through the seizures she felt as sick as she was.

~My heart, thoughts and prayers go out to Brittany’s family and friends.

On August 4, 2012, 66 year old John Wise walked into the Akron General Hospital intensive care unit in Akron, Ohio to shoot his loving, terminally ill wife of 45 years with a gunshot wound to the head in an attempt at a mercy killing to end her pain and suffering.

Barbara Wise, 65, had suffered a cerebral aneurysm and needed to be flown via emergency helicopter to the hospital. She was in the hospital for about a week until John came to believe incorrectly that she was in a vegetative state and shot his wife at her hospital bedside.

November 8, 2013 John was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to six years all because he didn’t want to see his wife in pain and suffer. Although he was convicted, John would never serve his six year sentence. He was being held at Franklin Medical Center where he had been since his conviction. The medical center is a place where inmates with chronic illnesses are placed.

John Wise passed away on July 14, 2014 at the then age of 68 years old. Cause of death was indicated as cardiac arrest, but he is believed to have died of a broken heart.

NOW what’s the point of me writing about all this? Well, here is my point… now it is time for ME to rant!

In the United States, we are a country that preaches and seems to pride itself on “Land Of The Free, Home Of The Brave”. We are supposed to have rights, freedom of speech, choices, and equality, although it surely doesn’t feel like it these days. We ALL have different religions, beliefs, paths, and choices we are faced with. But that is the whole point, they are OURS.

All of the people that want to use the argument about “playing God”, well let’s think about this a moment shall we? If you kill someone and you are convicted of that crime then OUR legal system says it is alright to put you to death. Well what gives us that right to make that decision? Just because OUR laws say it is alright does not mean it is alright. Are we not doing the same thing we are punishing them for.. murdering someone? God does say “Thou Shalt Not Kill”. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe the punishment should fit the crime especially when it comes to those who harm innocent children, I am just saying because these are things I think about. Hence the title and reason for my blog.

What about all these girls that go out and think it is alright to share themselves with multiple partners? You know the ones I am talking about, and if not just turn on almost any episode of Maury Povich, or better known as The Maury Show. Anyhow, they go around getting knocked up and the ones that don’t want to have a baby can have a pill given to them by a doctor that will just terminate the fetus. You are killing a living thing, it might only be an embryo or fetus however it is still alive, growing and forming shape.

If these things are acceptable in our society these days, then why is it unacceptable for you to have an educated ADULT decision on whether to suffer or not. Look at it through my eyes, convicted criminals do NOT have a choice. Babies that are about to be terminated do NOT have a choice. But a person that is terminally ill and doesn’t want to suffer does NOT have the choice on what to do with their own body and this is acceptable?

This is a whacked world we live in. Oh, and for those of you that still want to argue the whole topic, if you are terminally ill and do not want this option then that is YOUR decision and your right. If you are not ill and just wanna poke your nose in the kool aid when you don’t even know the flavor, then shut your freaking pie hole because no one wants to hear from you.

People should have a choice, and a right to make a decision that affects their lives and their well being. If all fifty states does not want to exercise this option for the terminally ill to use “Death With Dignity” in the privacy of their own homes, then why can’t it at least be an option to choose for a professional to administer if you are in a hospital ICU or a hospice facility. If this had been an option already then perhaps Barbara Wise might still be alive today because there would not have been a misunderstanding in the first place. It could also prevent this sort of thing from happening again to someone else.

We have rights people in this supposed land of the free. It is time that we take them back instead of letting them all get taken away!!

If you have not and would like to see Brittany Maynard’s video messages you can do so by visiting http://www.thebrittanyfund.org/