DEATH WITH DIGNITY

The NY TIMES recently did an editorial about dying with the dignity that a terminally ill patient deserves. Their choice. When I was a hospital chaplain in a military hospital with many older retirees, one year we averaged a death a day. Did they all die dignified deaths. No. Many were hooked up to machines and they would have wished for their last days as anything but this. 

The idea that only 8 states have laws that let terminally ill patients end their lives on their own terms, is unbelievable. Last year when Brittany Maynard, a Californian had to go to Oregan to die with dignity,  I could hardly believe it. 

I have always been proud of California, a front burner in terms of attitude and leading the way in being creative, innovative and intuitive. And, I might say, taking risks. And,  yet we do not have a law that allows  individuals to be in control of their own lives. Politics I guess and a f..king bunch of zealots. The late Albert Ellis, my therapist hero said something like this,  "every person's life belongs to them and consequently they choose when, where, how they leave the earth."