Why can't we live and let die?

By Jazmin Kelly Six
November 11, 2008

ONE would not allow an animal to go through what I have endured.
That was Chantal Sebire's cry in March, for her right to depart peacefully after getting, eight years earlier, a rare form of cancer that left her blind and in intense pain.
The 52-year-old woman in France also had to endure the humiliation of children fleeing on seeing her severely disfigured face.

Her plea was denied. Two days later, she died an unnatural death at home.
Isn't it perplexing that while we can actively ease the pain and suffering of a beloved pet dog (by euthanasia), we cannot grant a fellow human being the same repose?
Pro-life and religious advocates can disagree, but with my birth comes my right to live and, consequently, my right to die.
Make no mistake, I do not condone suicide as an escape from life's problems. I value life deeply, but above all, I am pro-choice. I campaign for the freedom to live as I desire and the right to be granted a coup de grace should the need arise.
All life is sacred, you say, and to end one's life is immoral, voluntarily or not. What then does this make of the executioner standing at the gallows?
In relation to the practice of capital punishment, doesn't the pro-life stance on euthanasia seem hypocritical? We take away lives because of crime but we deny a sick man's crimeless right to do the same for himself.
To quote Ramon Sampedro, a 55-year-old quadriplegic who fought 29 years but failed to be granted his death wish, 'A life without freedom is not a life.'
Unable to move his body from neck down after a diving accident, he called himself 'a live head stuck to a dead body'.
He was eventually relieved after friends gave him a lethal cyanide potion on his request. The story of his battle was later made into a movie named The Sea Inside.
The true accounts of Ms Sebire and Mr Sampedro point to the same conclusion: Little can be done to deter one when the mind is set on dying.
Yes, we need to protect the weak from predators who nudge them to die for private gain or convenience.
But for others of sound mind, give them freedom of choice.
Life is a right, not an obligation.
Give the medically suffering what they own - their right to decide their own fate.

(This article is taken from The New Paper - 10th Nov 2008)