Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Persuaded to live with dignity

Jeanette Hall tells her story of being a person in Oregon who qualified for assisted suicide but was persuaded by her physician to consent to medical treatment and who not only survived but is now happy to be alive.

Society needs to ensure that all of its citizens can Live with Dignity rather than being directly and intentionally encouraged, counselled and aided to death.

The Montreal Gazette June 2, 2010
Re: "Euthanasia hearings to hit the road" (Gazette, May 26).

I'm a retired bookkeeper, who lives in Oregon, where assisted suicide is legal. Our law was enacted via a ballot initiative, for which I voted.

In 2000, I was diagnosed with colon cancer and told that I had six months to a year to live. I knew that our law had passed, but I didn't know exactly how to go about doing it. I asked one of my doctors, but he didn't really answer me.

Instead, he encouraged me not to give up and ultimately I decided to fight. I had both chemotherapy and radiation, and I am truly happy to be alive! That was 10 years ago, and if my doctors had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead.
I thank each of them for helping me choose "life with dignity."

Jeanette Hall
King City, Oregon
Link to the comment at: http://www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/letters/Persuaded+live+with+dignity/3100355/story.html

2 comments:

Ironsides said...

Alex, there are so many people with amazing stories of rejecting euthanasia/assisted-suicide. You give these people's personal experiences a real news-coverage, which the mainstream-media block.

They choose to give more coverage to the audience which the so-called Right-to-Die movement drum up, who are so effective in scaring everybody into their market.

One thing we need, is top people in the media to abandon the dollar-sign priority, so these survivors can get more mainstream news-coverage.

Janet McDonough said...

Jeanette, thak goodness for your doctors. They may be rare because I know of some doctors who go along with assisted suicide. In fact, I thinkthe nameof our organization should be "Euthanasuia Stoppage!" not just "Prevention." I have seen doctors who just let their patients die from a lack of nutrition. Just water (hydration) is not enough. They would not let a child die from lack of nutrition.