Choosing death with dignity is not an easy decision and there are few people that will make that choice. A terminally ill patient should have the right to choose life or death. Death with dignity should be legal across the world. It is legal in four states in the United States. They are Oregon, Washington, Vermont and California. Many foreign countries such as Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the Netherlands also permit death with dignity.

Having a terminal illness would be hard enough. But knowing that you cannot choose to end your life at a “happier” time rather than suffering until death would be even harder. Terminal illnesses do not only affect the person who has the illness, but they affect the family also. For a family member of someone who has a terminal illness, it would be hard to watch him suffer knowing that no one or no treatment can save him. Death with dignity would be a hard choice to make, but it gives patients the opportunity to die without fear that they will lose their physical or mental capacities. The patient will be able to say good-bye to his loved ones without being in pain or suffering.

Brittany Maynard was a 29-year-old woman who lived California. She had only been married for just over a year and was trying to start a family when she was diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer. Then her “normal” life turned into hospital stays, doctor visits and medical research. Brittany had a partial craniotomy and a partial resection of the temporal lobe in an effort to stop the growth of her brain tumor. Just a few months later, the doctors found that Brittany’s tumor came back, and this time it was even more aggressive. The doctors gave Brittany a prognosis of six months to live.

Brittany then began to weigh her options from hospice care to death with dignity. Due to the rest of Brittany’s body being young and healthy, she would be likely to physically hang on for a long period of time while the cancer continues to eat her mind. Brittany’s thoughts at this horrific time were, “I didn’t not want this nightmare scenario for my family, so I started researching death with dignity. It is an end-of-life option for mentally competent, terminally ill patients with a prognosis of six months or less to live.” She then decided that death with dignity was the best option for her and her family.

Brittany and her family had to uproot from California to Oregon, because Oregon is one of the few states that authorizes death with dignity. The last thing they should have had to do was pack all of their belongings and move states away just to die with dignity. If death with dignity would be legal in all states and countries, Brittany and her family could have stayed in California. Brittany Maynard said in a message to legislators recorded several weeks before her death, “No one should have to leave their home and community for peace of mind, to escape suffering and to plan for a gentle death.” Brittany Maynard inspired California’s Death with Dignity Bill. According to deathwithdignity.org, California’s Death with Dignity law will take effect of June 9, 2016.

When considering death with dignity think of Brittany Maynard. A woman who became terminally ill at the age of 29. Put yourself in her situation. Would you want to live like that? No one deserves to suffer. Everyone should have the right to choose death with dignity. According to The-Star “Put My Dignity First, Kindly”: “It is selfish to stare at me plugged into machines with no hope of recovering, even if you stare with tears rolling down your cheeks.”