Aid In Dying: The Ultimate Human Right

What is Death with Dignity, also known as Aid in Dying? Even with the best palliative care, suffering at life’s end is sometimes extreme. That’s when the most rational choice can be to hasten one’s death - to avoid needlessly suffering through the final, agonizing stages of dying. Mentally competent adults, suffering intolerably at end of life, have a basic human right to choose a peaceful, dignified, humane, and pain-free death. Physicians and loved ones should have the legal right to help the dying patient. We need legal change to secure these rights everywhere, and in particular, in Illinois we need to pass a law similar to the ones on the books in Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Montana, and soon, we hope, California.

About me:  I’ve been the president of Final Options Illinois since April, 2013.  The group was formed in 1984 as Hemlock of Illinois.  I call myself an “accidental activist” in this cause.  My story is typical.  Aid-in-dying was something I believed in, but was not heavily involved in, until about ten years ago.  At that time a dear friend of my wife and I, who had had Parkinson’s disease for more than twenty years and was in very bad shape, decided that she wanted to hasten her death.  I can explain more at the talk.  I am a lifelong Chicagoan.