Courage: Death On Your Own Terms

Brittany Maynard has, for some people decided to take the easy way out: she has planned her own death for November 1, and already has the medication to carry it through. She is suffering from cancer and will die sooner rather most people would wish and, if the diagnosis is correct, her death would not be a pleasant one.

No one, I heard recently, has the Right to die. We all have the right to live, as best we can, but are not allowed, in many parts of the world, to choose our own means of death or the date on which we take our lives. Suicide is still a crime, because life is considered precious and, of course, irreplaceable.

Already she has been called a coward, a person who is weak and taking the easy way out of a situation she can have no control over. She should, it has been suggested, hang on in there and simply suffer until the light finally goes out. She should die a gruesome death in a hospital bed or out on the street, with pain.

Suicide can be called a coward’s way out, but not in this case. Brittany Maynard is in full control of her senses, at the moment, not depressed, not facing any major obstacles in life which might otherwise be sorted out, brought back to rights. She has made a considered decision based on the facts, on her limited future, and has decided to die in a controlled, painless manner with family and friends. There is nothing cowardly about this decision. She is a young woman, at twenty-nine, who would otherwise have everything to live for, given the time. Time, however, is not on her side as far as life is concerned, she has a few months before the pain begins, before she begins to lose her senses, before she becomes a burden to someone else.

Not everyone can do it, make such a decision and with care and forethought. Brittany Maynard has, however, done it with bravado and consideration for those around her. She is not a coward, she is someone who has accepted her fate and is stepping in towards it the best way that she can.

• Viktoria Michaelis.

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