In an interview with Aubrey Hawk of Honolulu she shared her compassion for animals and humans as well. If you live in Hawaii and have a pet you know how difficult these end of life choices can be. As pet owners there is a humane way to end the suffering of your beloved animal and if it were the other way around I believe your pet would not want to see you suffer needlessly.
We gently end suffering for beloved pets; don’t humans deserve the same compassion?
Translated literally as "good death," euthanasia refers to the act of painlessly but deliberately causing the death of another who is suffering from an incurable, painful disease or condition. It is commonly thought of as lethal injection and is often referred to as “mercy killing.” It’s is a widely accepted method of humanely ending the life of a terminally ill, suffering pet—as it should be.
When it comes to humans, all forms of euthanasia are illegal throughout the US—as it should be.
But where does that leave dying people who are suffering needlessly? Should we abandon them to their suffering in their finals days? Aid in dying should be an option available to all competent, terminally ill and suffering adults.
What’s the difference?
Aid in dying is an end of life care option in which mentally competent, terminally ill adults request their physician to provide a prescription for medication that the patients can, if they choose, self-administer to bring about a peaceful death. No one performs the act but the patient himself.
Opponents sometimes mistakenly refer to aid in dying as “assisted suicide” and would like to classify it as a crime. But they are not the same. Assisting a suicide -- to maliciously goad a mentally-ill person to act on his self-destructive impulses -- should be understood as a crime. Aid in dying -- to mercifully respond to a rational dying person's request to abbreviate his suffering --should be understood as accepted medical practice. Put another way, aid in dying is as different from assisted suicide as a surgery is from a stabbing. One is a crime, and the other a careful medical practice.
Compassion & Choices is an organization that improves care and expands choice at the end of life. If you would like more information, call 1-800-247-7421 or visit www.compassionandchoices.org.
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