In October, terminally ill cancer patient, Brittany Maynard, became the face of the “right to die” movement in our country. Brittany had stage IV glioblastoma multiforme, which is the most deadly form of brain cancer and was given six-months to live.
After her diagnosis, Brittany decided that she wanted to move from her California home to Oregon so that she could have access to the “death with dignity” prescription. Oregon is one of five states, along with New Mexico, Montana, Washington, and Vermont that allow assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. Tragically, on November 2nd, Brittany legally ended her own life with a lethal dose of Phenobarbital.
Now a 59-year-old Colorado man wants to do the same thing.
According to USA Today, Robert Mitton was given six-months to live in January. He has a failing heart but since physician assisted suicide is illegal in Colorado, he plans to suffocate himself with helium. It should be noted that Mitton’s already lived five months longer than doctors gave him. Nonetheless, he still wants to kill himself.
Mitton said, “I don’t want to go through the very last throes of swelling up and drowning in my own blood. It is supposed to be a very ugly death when your aortic heart valve finally goes. There is a time when you need to turn off the switch.”
Robert Halpern, a spokesperson for Compassion and Choices, a pro-euthanasia group that is pushing to legalize assisted suicide, responded to the story.
He said, “Because we don’t have a death with dignity type law, they’re jumping off of a balcony; they’re using a handgun; they’re hooking up a hose to their car in the garage; they are using some other means to end their suffering. A lot of times they are ineffective means, and they’re certainly done in secrecy so the family is not involved like you would have with an authorized option.”
However, people commit suicide like Halpern described all the time and we call it tragic but when a person is terminally ill we praise them for their bravery. Mitton’s story doesn’t give merit to physician-assisted suicide; rather, his case illustrates the problem with it. If our country accepts death as a way to alleviate suffering, there will be people ending their life even in states where it is illegal.
But what’s even worse is “death with dignity” ideology opens Pandora’s box to all sorts of evil. For now, some states have accepted that people with terminal illnesses should have access to the lethal pill; but soon it could be acceptable for people who are disabled or severely depressed. For now, our sick and elderly can’t be coerced or forced to kill themselves by doctors or relatives but that may not be too far away.
That may sound far-fetched, but don’t be fooled; when a society accepts killing as a way to solve its problems, there is no end to the evil it could bring. For example, as LifeNews previously reported, in the Netherlands and in Belgium people with disabilities, people suffering from mental illness, people who were just lonely or old but otherwise healthy, even children — all can be euthanized.
Click here to sign up for daily pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com
Is that the future and legacy our country wants? As for the group “Compassion and Choices” (formerly known as the Hemlock society) that used Brittany’s tragedy to gain momentum for their evil cause, they’re not the loving compassionate people the media makes them out to be. Instead, they are a group that preys upon our most vulnerable citizens by promising “relief” while promoting their radical agenda.
And what is that agenda exactly? They want to kill patients who have Alzheimer’s; they tell people if they want to die they should starve themselves to death; and they support measures that would allow the killing of our disabled. This is why pro-lifers need to be prepared for an intense battle, potentially even in Colorado, to protect our most sacred gift; the gift of life.
