‘Gentle goodbye’

Dear Editor:

RE: Should save lives, March 26.

I wonder if the writer even is aware of the prerequisites necessary for consideration for medical assistance in dying (MAID).

You must be at least 18 years of age. You must be suffering from a grievous or irremediable disease. You must voluntarily request the procedure and consent voluntarily. You must be in an advanced state of decline and/or in unbearable mental or physical suffering that cannot be relieved by medical assistance. 

I wonder how this person would feel if they had cancer that was eating away at them and causing pain that couldn’t be helped by any medication and they were told to “tough it out.”

How about ALS, suffocating to your last difficult breath. I have seen both. Not the way to end your life. To add to the injury, your family gets to watch your painful and unnecessary decline and death. 

Instead, how about a family and friend gathering where everyone gets to say their goodbyes, perhaps reminisce about old times, express love and feelings together. What follows is a gentle and dignified process ending quietly as your tormented loved one drifts gently to sleep. 

When a beloved pet is suffering, you don’t sit and watch it suffer until it takes it’s last breath in agony. You do the loving thing, you let them go to sleep because you love them. Are we, as human beings not allowed the same respect and gentle goodbye? What is the writer’s alternative? 

To allow people to suffer unto death is not humane; it is barbaric and without compassion. I am for dignity and gentility and a humane passage. 

I also think that people should mind their own business.

Terry Filce,
Belwood