Decaying democracy No easy out Outsmart sweet Keep your beliefs from condemning us to suffer
Manhattan: Re Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s recent op-ed “Physician assisted suicide is not a good answer” (April 7): First, it is medically assisted death for the dying. It is not suicide or the killing of a sustainable life. Dolan fails to mention the requirement of making your dying wishes known when you are of sound mind, as my wife did. Elizabeth had metastatic breast cancer. Four days after undergoing whole brain radiation therapy, she became almost totally incapacitated. She was a vibrant, intelligent woman who was in good spirits and talking about fashion with doctors during that treatment. We had planned a move to a right-to-die state. The doctor told her that her life would be extended for a year after the WBRT. But that was not to be.
In a N.Y. hospice, her IV hydration was stopped; no food, no water. She was condemned to die from starvation and thirst. I sat by her side, holding her swollen hand all night as I listened to her body devour itself. I was told she felt no pain. Yet she screamed in pain when being turned in bed as her skin was separating. After two weeks of this, I considered administering a hot shot of heroin to end her life. Her morphine doses were increased, which mercifully ended her life of pain and suffering.
We would euthanize an animal rather than let them suffer such agony. Dolan’s real opposition is his religious belief that death must be “natural” and that suffering is “God’s will.” There was nothing natural about allowing such horrific suffering for a terminally ill, beautiful human being. Vincent Novak