I followed Maynard’s saga closely. As someone who almost died by suicide in my youth, I do not view her tragic choice as either brave or compassionate, but as deeply misguided. In explanation, I have spent the last two decades vocally championing the cause I now embrace that “suicide is never a solution” by speaking at high school assemblies, on college campuses, in churches and being part of the national documentary, “Before You Say Good-bye.”
My heart breaks for Maynard’s family and for the pain and suffering she endured battling cancer. Her gesture of ending what she described as “bone-splitting” headaches, seizures, strokes and ultimately her illness’s incurable nature, at first glance appears rational and even altruistic.
No matter what the reason, suicide says that ending your life is an option, a way out of the turmoil and difficulties this Earthy existence is guaranteed to present.
Most crucial are statistics which indicate that if an individual within a family takes their life, the probability that someone else within that family unit will die by suicide increases. According to www.nami.org, the website for The National Alliance on Mental Illness, “Family history of suicide” is an important risk factor regarding suicide or suicidal behavior among youth.
Will Maynard’s politically exploited and glamorized version of the right to die with dignity be a catalyst for another family member’s suicide? Only time will tell.
My personal role model was a terminally ill adult relative who put a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger when I was 11. He was not a criminal. He was a highly respected, small city judge. As a troubled teenager, his example erroneously introduced the idea that suicide was an acceptable way to end my battle with depression, a condition which almost 10 percent of the U.S. population deals with annually. What catastrophic precedent could Maynard’s case set for the mentally ill?
Sadly, we live in a society with a me-centered worldview. But life was never supposed to be all about us, but rather about our significance within the concept of community. We were created by a God who counts each day of our existence as vitally meaningful. It is only in His way and His time that we should breathe our final breath — that is truly dying with dignity.
About the Author