Right to Die

It’s raining this morning—a steady soft tap dance of water on the roof. I find myself hoping the rain will signal a break in the oppressive heat and humidity the northeast has experienced for the past few weeks. I’ve caught myself lately day-dreaming at times about the fall—sometimes even the winter, the pure cold snow blanketing the ground outside my windows. These thoughts have me pondering the dilemma of wanting circumstances to be different even when we realize we can’t control them. Moment to moment we experience the wish to acquire or achieve something we don’t have or to push away things we don’t want. As a Buddhist, I struggle often to let go of trying to change things, and instead, just accept that which is present in the moment.

Of course, death is perhaps the biggest thing most people wish to push as far away as possible. The desire to keep living and avoid death is the source of the great taboo our society has built to wall death off. But there is another side to how society approaches death because some people can’t wait to die—they may even beg to die. People suffering from intractable physical or emotional pain wish death could come as quickly as possible because only death can bring them relief. It is this side of the story about death that lies behind the right to die movement in this country and elsewhere. That movement is growing and we can expect many more than the five current states where medically aided dying is legal to have similar laws.