Woman With Terminal Brain Cancer Chooses To End Own Life.

[Mitchell]

www.wpvi.com.

I heard on Jim Gardner's 11pm news tonight, that Brittany Manyard, a 29 year old woman, who has last stage terminal brain cancer, has chosen to end her own life.

Ms Manyard has relocated from her home state, to Oregon, where, apparently, it is legal to be given a drug to end one's own life.

This is a tragic story. Ms Manyard is far too young to be facing death.

Yet, as someone who watched the closest person in the world to me, my beloved mother, suffer and die of last stage metastatic terminal brain cancer, in the last seven weeks of her life, the physical and emotional affect that her terrible ending took on my mom, and me, the person who loved her the most in the world, I am absolutely in favor of a law in all 50 states that allows a person to choose euthanasia, if they have a last stage terminal illness, to spare the patient, and the family, the suffering of watching a person suffer and die of an incurable illness.

I can say definitively that while I cherished every last day and hour with my mom, and was thankful she was conscious for me to be able to talk to her, and tell her I loved her, until just a few hours before her death, had my mom chosen such a decision, I would have supported her decision 100%, kissed her goodbye, cried my tears, and moved on.

They give euthanasia to terminally ill animals, by putting the poor suffering defenseless animal, out of its misery and suffering, by giving it a medicine, to put it to sleep peacefully. I feel they should do the same for humans who have terminal illnesses as well.

I realize this is a very controversial subject, and will get strong reaction from both sides, but, I wanted to post this to begin the discussion.

 

[rdhd]

yeh....if it is YOUR decision. If I'm ever in that position, then yes, give me a pill to do it. No doctors, nurses to take the blame - I did it myself. Then it's between God and me (how do I have the right...). But the idiots want us to spend bookoos of money to stay alive with drugs that don't really help. If you can get insurance. Etc. Etc.

 

[desdemona]

I'm obviously pro-euthanasia from a professional standpoint. I was quite interested to hear of this newest development that they are offering this for people - I hope it becomes more accepted and widespread throughout the US. But I've always thought Oregon was a somewhat "enlightened" state - even if they are a throw back to the 60s and hippies.

 

[Mitchell]

rdhd, I see your point. The only reason I would want a Dr or nurse there, would be to monitor dosage administration, to cause the least pain.

des, I agree with what you said 100%.

 

[Bothersome]

I believe that people should be allowed to die on their own terms. This doesn't just apply to terminal patients, either.

In a world where we often have so little control over the way we live, I believe we're at least due the courtesy of choosing how and when we die.

 

[Crackity Jones]

As long as medical professionals determine that the patient is of sound mind and under no coercion I think this should be allowed.

 

[kopfhorer]

No one should have to suffer needlessly, and if all other avenues have truly been exhausted, I'm all for euthanasia. Provided of course that it doesn't become just another cost-cutting measure for insurance conglomerates or governments.

 

[Nedstacey2]

NBC Nightly News picked up on Maynard's story in a report last week. Here is another NBC video about her:

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The word courageous doesn't begin to describe this exceedingly brave young woman.

Mitchell, my sympathies once again for your loss and my gratitude for the comforting words you've tendered for mine. It is a special bond: the larceny from our lives of women so beloved and close to us, yours from birth, mine through love and marriage, both by this scourge brain cancer.

I understand the desire of anyone in such a situation to want to exert what little control he/she can over the final stages. Yet, from very painful personal experience I would ask for some thought to the impact of an arbitrary premature exit on those who will be left behind--soon enough anyway, to be sure, but still who may be clinging to desperate hope and the irreplaceable, precious life of their loved one.

Besides rendering her a near-total invalid in her last months, my "Stacey"'s tumor impaired her speech and, we suspected, her cognitive functioning to the degree that even though she seemed to express a preference not to continue with chemotherapy when the results of her MRIs pointed to an irreversible progression of the disease and an ineluctable fatal outcome, I just could not surrender to the inevitable. I resisted to the bitter end consigning her to hospice, believing that despite the daunting challenges of caring for her 24/7, I, along with our teenage kids with the capable assistance of our local home care agency, could bear the load and we did seem to succeed in keeping her comfortable at home with us. And I would take on that draining burden again in a heartbeat if it would mean that Stacey would be with us, even if a shell of her former self.

Despite her helpless condition, Stacey apparently never had to endure any physical pain from this illness, only in the midst of minor complications that arose from it, all of which were by and large treatable. Naturally, my entire attitude might have been different if she were in agony, as according to the clip above Maynard is destined to be if her variety of brain cancer is allowed to run its full course. Instead, Stacey never seemed to flag from her irrepressible strength of character and faced her circumstances day to day with remarkable fortitude, as Maynard is doing, and gave no sign that she wanted us to do anything to cease the prolongation of her dwindled vitality.

But the uncertainty and the unanswered questions still plague me. Mitchell, you are fortunate that your mom remained lucid almost all the way, but that just was not the case with my dear Stacey.

Was I just being selfish? Perhaps. It is a difficult issue, like so many in life, that cries out for the wisdom of Solomon which I definitely do not possess, if any of us does.

 

[Nedstacey2]

Today is the day that Brittany Maynard had planned to end her life, but she's apparently had a change of heart, if only about the specific date:

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So much about this case hits home, from the minor coincidences that her first name is always what my "Stacey" thought she would name her own daughter and that Maynard's brain tumor was diagnosed on January 1, which happens to be my and Stacey's own anniversary, to her fears about losing the ability to communicate her own wishes:

So the worst thing that could happen to me is that I wait too long because I'm trying to seize each day but that I somehow have my autonomy taken away from me by my disease because of the nature of my cancer . . . my most terrifying set of seizures was about a week or so ago; I had two in a day which is unusual and I remember looking at my husband's face at one point and thinking, "I know this is my husband, but I can't say his name."
​

That's precisely what led to the discovery of Stacey's tumor: just one morning out of blue, having displayed no prior symptoms at all, she tried to talk to me but couldn't, soon followed by a long series of even more debilitating seizures.

From the depths of my own grief, I can only wish the best to her and her husband and family in her time left. As I said before, she is a paragon of fortitude and bravery, and however her story ends, she joins Stacey in my personal pantheon of heroes.

 

[paracarl44]

UPDATE!

I have heard that she ended her life.

 

[Mitchell]

Tragic. May Ms Manyard Rest In Peace.

 

[Nedstacey2]

A heart-rending tragedy all around. I know full well the hell that her husband has gone through, is going through and will go through, having also lost a vivacious young wife to brain cancer within the last year. Best hopes for him to overcome, but I myself have barely emerged from under the dark cloud. At least he and Brittany did not have children as Stacey and I did, which just magnifies the sorrow.

Speaking of Hell--that is, unless Pope Francis really did say it doesn't exist, or maybe that was baptizable aliens--even the Vatican has weighed in on this case, with a predictable assessment.

 

[Libertine]

If it was good enough for King George V in 1936...

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/28/world/1936-secret-is-out-doctor-sped-george-v-s-death.html

 

[Mitchell]

Many times, the family of a terminally ill patient would choose this path as well.

My paternal grandfather died of cancer when I was.. 12. It was bladder cancer that spread.

Unlike my mom, who had brain cancer, but was conscious until just hours before she died, , my grandfather was in a coma for many weeks at the end of his life. At one point, before he slipped into the long coma, I can remember my grandfather signing a power of attorney, giving my dad legal authority over my grandfather's treatment, etc, because my grandmother was too upset.

I distinctly remember during the time that my grandfather was in the long coma, my dad would come home and say to my mom.. "If we could just give my dad a shot to put him to sleep, so he wont suffer. They do it to animals. Why not humans?"

I know for a fact that my family would have euthinisized my grandfather at the end if they could have. This was.. 1982.. so I don't think such a method existed for humans with terminal illnesses at that time.

 

[tklfeather10]

May ms.Brittany Manyard rest in peace.

Despite all the religious and other implications euthanasia should be made legal and the means and facilities to enable it to be carried out should be made available.

On the other side of the coin some time ago a person working for social services and i had a debate about euthanasia, and they pointed pointed out to me that, when a person was living in council care, and had no relatives the euthanasia policy could be rolled out to save costs.

At the time this sounded crazy but in the current climate this could one day occur.

But i would vote every time to make it legal, with certain conditions and limits, a lot of people who oppose euthanasia have probably never had a relative suffer from cancer, ask any sufferer or there relatives and i think most would vote for it, remember cancer is the worst and most feared illness but there are lots of others.

I would like to thank the originator of this post which raises a lot of debate and interest.

 

[kopfhorer]

I too am very concerned that, especially in the current American political climate, euthanasia might be considered the "final solution" to rising medical (read: Medicare/Medicaid) costs by those in power. Nonetheless, I stand with those who oppose so-called "heroic" measures that keep people with life-threatening illnesses technically "alive" while doing little to support their quality-of-life.

Digression: Some years back, I heard a story on National Public Radio concerning a support group of gay men in the final stages of AIDS who had elected to terminate their own lives on their own terms rather than suffer through that debilitating illness. The announcer asked the man she was interviewing what would stop him and others in his situation from taking their own lives. "Find a cure" was his answer. (This was of course, long before the invention of the treatments and preventative medications we now have for that disease.)

 

[Mitchell]

I haven't been to this thread in over a week.

feather, I started this thread not only because of Ms Manyard, but, as someone who saw two of the people he loved most in the world, his mother and his grandfather, die from terminal cancer, I saw how the suffering took its toll on my grandfather, my mom, and our family. Their suffering, and all of our suffering along with them, was tragic.

My view is simple, if there is no hope for cure .. and the patient and the family suffer, why prolong the suffering for all.

 

[tklfeather10]

I haven't been to this thread in over a week.

feather, I started this thread not only because of Ms Manyard, but, as someone who saw two of the people he loved most in the world, his mother and his grandfather, die from terminal cancer, I saw how the suffering took its toll on my grandfather, my mom, and our family. Their suffering, and all of our suffering along with them, was tragic.

My view is simple, if there is no hope for cure .. and the patient and the family suffer, why prolong the suffering for all.

amen to that, and thanks for starting this thread.

 

[BlasterMaster]

What good is preserving a person's life if that person isn't able to find any joy or dignity in it anymore? The medical community (as well as our government) needs to be alot tolerant of people who want to focus on "quality of life" instead of just living "as long as humanly possible". My own father has met some doctors he's personally like to "burn at the stake" for making suggestions about life sustaining treatments without even THINKING to mention how much DISCOMFORT said treatments would cause!