Dear Editor,
I am undergoing my second round of cancer. I feel that only I can decide how much pain and loss of ‘quality of life’ I can endure. No one else should have the right to decide for me that I must suffer until I die an excruciating natural death. By taking away my right to have a physician assist me if I decide enough is enough, unfeeling, intrusive government bureaucracy stands in the way of my peaceful end.
In past letters published in the Missoulian, Dr. Stephen Speckart of the Montana Cancer Center has been unfairly demonized because he supports physician-assisted suicide. Before he retired, he was my oncologist. I can assure you that no physician ever fought harder to keep a patient alive, or was more caring and compassionate. The fact that he supports assisted suicide as a last resort only exemplifies his compassion for his patients.
Anyone afraid of coercion to hasten death should create a ’Living Will’ beforehand, specifying his or her life-end choices while still cognizant to make that personal decision. Everyone should have a living will on file anyway. Potential “elder abuse” is only an excuse employed by opponents of voluntary assisted suicide. Every approval would necessarily be documented, signed by the patient, presiding physician and subsequently notarized before witnesses.
Paulette Kimball
Corvallis