To the Editor:

Having watched my beloved mother suffer for over a year before finally dying of ovarian cancer, I strongly support the End of Life Options Act (S3685)/(A2129) currently in committee in New York State. The legislation would allow a terminally ill, mentally competent adult to request life-ending medication from a doctor if suffering becomes unbearable.

The New York bill is modeled on the Oregon law, which has been in effect since 1997.  In that time, there have been no cases of abuse or coercion. The states of Washington, Vermont, Montana, and California also have provisions for self-deliverance in cases of terminal illness. 

All of these states have safeguards so that there can be no manipulation or abuse.  About 50 million Americans now live in states where Death with Dignity legislation gives them the right to relief at the end of life, should suffering become unbearable.  New Yorkers want that right!

This is not a movement that devalues old people or life itself.  It values quality of life.

Not all people facing terminal illness are elderly; think of Brittany Maynard, the lovely young 29-year-old woman who moved to Oregon last year so that she could end her suffering on her terms — when the pain from terminal brain cancer became unbearable.  Brittany Maynard put a human face on terminal suffering and she made passage of the California law possible. 

This is a basic right — control over our own deaths in the face of intractable suffering.

Eleanor Aronstein

Schenectady

Editor’s note: Eleanor Aronstein was featured in an Enterprise article, “Making personal and public choices on dying,” on April 9, 2015. She is a member of the Final Exit Network.