Maynard story raises issue: How to care for the dying besides killing them

This article was published by OneNewsNow.com on October 31, 2014.

Alex Schadenberg

For a person going through terminal illnesses or pain, assisted suicide is not the answer, says an expert on assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Brittany Maynard, 29, is dying from terminal cancer and moved to Oregon where assisted suicide is legal. She had planned to kill herself Saturday, Nov. 1, but she has had a change of heart and postponed it.

Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition sheds some light on the situation, saying first that Maynard has become a poster girl for the movement.

"I think that you have to understand the problem with this situation is that Brittany has become part of a whole media campaign," he tells OneNewsNow. "So whether she decides to wait to cause her death or not, she is now part of a system which is trying to gain from her death."

Schadenberg says her story has given national exposure to lobbying group Compassion and Choices while mostly ignoring a genuine solution for her problem, and others.

"The answer in society is how do you care for people going through difficult circumstances, not how we kill them," he insists.

That means providing better palliative care, and medical treatment or counseling for such things as depression.

Links to similar articles:

• An open letter to Brittany Maynard from Maggie Karner.
• Brittany Maynard: Don't rob them of hope.