A 41 year-old woman afflicted with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, invited all of her closest friends and relatives to a two-day party to celebrate her life, then closed the celebration by downing a lethal dose of drugs, thus ending her life.
The Daily Mail is reporting on the death of Betsey Davis, who held a “goodbye party” before becoming one of the first Californians to take a lethal dose of drugs under the state’s new assisted suicide law.
Davis began preparing for the event in July when she sent an email invitation to her closest friends and relatives: “These circumstances are unlike any party you have attended before, requiring emotional stamina, centeredness and openness.” Referring to her guests as “rebirth participants”, she commended them on their bravery for “sending me off on my journey.”
“There are no rules,” she added. “Wear what you want, speak your mind, dance, hop, chant, sing, pray, but do not cry in front of me. Oh, OK one rule.”
For the invitees, it was one of the most difficult events they were ever asked to attend.
“For me and everyone who was invited, it was very challenging to consider, but there was no question that we would be there for her,” said Niels Alpert, a cinematographer from New York City. “The idea to go and spend a beautiful weekend that culminates in their suicide — that is not a normal thing, not a normal, everyday occurrence. In the background of the lovely fun, smiles and laughter that we had that weekend was the knowledge of what was coming.”
Davis, a painter and performing artist, was diagnosed several years ago with the crippling disease which affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Characterized by progressive muscle weakness, it leads to complete paralysis and death usually within three to five years of diagnosis. In Davis’ case, she had lost the ability to stand or brush her teeth and her speech was becoming slurred
More than 30 people responded to her invitation and flew to the Southern California mountain town of Ojai. Throughout the weekend of July 23-24, there was music, cocktails, pizza from Betsey’s favorite local restaurant and a screening of her favorite movie The Dance of Reality.
She also gave away clothes and other mementos, called “Betsey souvenirs”, to her guests.
Marilyn Golden, Senior Policy Analyst, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Inc.
When the weekend was over, everyone kissed her goodbye and left.
After they were gone, she donned a Japanese kimono that she had bought on a bucket-list trip she took in 2013 after her diagnosis, had her bed positioned in a way that she could watch the sunset, and then drank a lethal dose of morphine, pentobarbital and chloral hydrate prescribed by her doctor. The event was witnessed by her caretaker, her doctor, her massage therapist, and her sister. Four hours later, she died.
As peaceful and happy as it all sounds, not everyone is pleased about a law that many believe puts all of us at risk.
Marilyn Golden of the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, told the Mail that although her heart goes out to anyone dealing with a terminal illness, ‘there are still millions of people in California threatened by the danger of this law.’
As she explains on her website, the combination of today’s profit-driven managed health care and assisted suicide is a deadly mix. “The cost of the lethal medication generally used for assisted suicide is about $35 to $50, far cheaper than the cost of treatment for most long-term medical conditions. The incentive to save money by denying treatment already poses a significant danger. This danger would be far greater if assisted suicide is legal.”
She also argues that the impact of this new law will fall hardest on socially and economically disadvantaged people who have less access to medical resources and who already find themselves discriminated against by the health care system.
Rex Greene, M.D., Medical Director of the Dorothy E. Schneider Cancer Center at Mills Health Center in San Mateo, California and a leader in bioethics, health policy and oncology, underscored the heightened danger to the poor. He said, “The most powerful predictor of ill health is [people’s] income. [Legalization of assisted suicide] plays right into the hands of managed care.”
It’s also interesting to note that one of the drugs commonly used in the procedure, such as pentobarbitrol, is the same used to execute death row inmates which has caused gruesome complications. This is because this drug is acquired through compounding pharmacies that aren’t heavily regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
“And both situations have resulted in drug-related complications, demonstrating that a clean death is no guarantee even when people are put in charge of their own end,” writes Kimberly Leonard of U.S. News & World Report.
But there’s even more wrong with this picture when we continue to look behind the so-called “peaceful death” myth that too frequently clouds our view – no one has a “right” to die.
As Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life points out on their euthanasia fact sheet, no one has a “right” to die.
“A ‘right’ is a moral claim. We do not have a claim on death. Rather, death has a claim on us! We do not decide when our life will end, any more than we decided when it began. Much less does someone else — a relative, a doctor, or a legislator–decide when our life will end. None of us is master over life and death. What we do have a right to is proper care.”
The site goes on to quote the words of a high school student named Anne Marie O’Halloran who argued against euthanasia in an essay contest sponsored by the Archdiocese of New York.
“One of the highest values this country holds is freedom. This has led to a situation in which individuals believe they have the right to live completely as they desire. Human beings are seen as limitless. They have the right to decide how they want to live and how they should die….
“Another quality prized by our culture is power. We believe, or rather, we would like to believe, that we can control anything and everything to ensure a safe and comfortable lifestyle….Our society has created a world in which it is always possible and always considered right to take the easy way out of problems, suffering and death.
“That way is completely against the example Jesus set for us; it is against Christian values. We, as Christians, must form a counter-culture. We do not pray for an easy, free or painless life and death. Rather we should pray for strength to sustain and understand the life God gave us to live.”
May God grant eternal rest upon the soul of Betsey Davis and all those who take their lives through assisted suicide.
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