Brittany Maynard’s decision to end her life — and make her decision a public rallying point for the Death with Dignity movement — has caught the attention of the Vatican. The Vatican’s top bioethics official called Maynard’s decision to utilize Oregon’s Death with Dignity law “reprehensible” in an interview Tuesday with the ASNA news agency, according to the Associated Press…. “Dignity is something other than putting an end to one’s own life,” said Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life. “… Brittany Maynard’s act is in itself reprehensible, but what happened in the consciousness we do not know.”
There are few things I find more reprehensible than someone who’s appointed themselves to be an “authority” on a subject they know nothing about and concerns them even less. The idea that anyone could believe themselves to be in a position to cast aspersions on the judgment of someone facing a certain, horrific death is as offensive as it is laughable. There are times when ‘tis better to keep one’s opinion to oneself than to be revealed as an intolerant know-it-all who believes that their religious faith bestows upon them the right to pass judgment. Unless you’re in that person’s shoes, you really should just STFU.
I know nothing of Brittany Maynard’s religious inclinations…but even if she was Catholic, Msgr. de Paula has no right to refer to her decision to take control of her passing as “reprehensible.” What’s truly reprehensible is someone thinking they have the moral authority and the right to condemn someone for taking charge of their life and how it ends. Ms. Maynard knew she was facing a long, lingering, and horrible death from glioblastoma. She moved to Oregon from California because she wanted to be able to die on her own terms. If your only option is unimaginable pain and suffering, Oregon law provides a legal resident with the right to die as and when they deem appropriate. If the other choice is allowing a terminal disease to lay waste to you slowly and painfully, Death With Dignity isn’t reprehensible; it’s a reasonable, humane, and legal option. What’s unreasonable, inhumane, and immoral are those hyper-religious know-it-alls who believe themselves entitled to pass judgment on Ms. Maynard’s decision.
So many so-called Christians seem perfectly OK with the idea of opining that Ms. Maynard should have ridden it out until the bitter end. That’s an easy stance to assume when you’re not the one doing the suffering and dying. Death was not a mere abstract concept for Ms. Maynard; it was something she knew was imminent. She also knew that her death from glioblastoma would be unpleasant and painful at the very least. She chose to take control of her death- because it wasn’t an abstract concept for her as it is for so many who felt the right to weigh in disapprovingly on her decision.
I’m stunned, though not surprised, that a self-important and self-righteous official of the Catholic Church (or ANY church) feels his position provides him with the gravitas to weigh in disapprovingly on Ms. Maynard’s decision to end her life. NO ONE not named Brittany Maynard has the right to pass judgment on her decision. They were not the ones living with the death sentence, nor were they the ones having to wrestle with the pain she knew her husband, family, and friends would be left with once she had passed. Brittany Maynard wasn’t an abstract moral concept; she was a flesh-and-blood human being facing a horrific, lingering, and painful death. For anyone to advocate that she should have hung on to the bitter end because to do otherwise offends their religious convictions is the height of arrogance and callousness.
I wouldn’t wish Ms. Maynard’s diagnosis on anyone, even Msgr. de Paula…but I can certainly hope he has a reserved parking space waiting for him in Hell.
