Doctor who planned to die by assisted suicide is happy to be alive.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Dr Randy Hilliard

The Detroit Free Press published an article by Meira Gebel about a new treatment for stomach cancer and how one man, a doctor, had planned to travel to Switzerland to die by assisted suicide, before receiving this new treatment.

Randy Hilliard, who was a professor of psychiatry at Michigan State University, was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer. He became obsessive with suicide and planned his death by assisted suicide in Switzerland and his funeral. Hilliard stated:

“My immediate reaction was, 'I'm dead,' which of course shows you know why accessing your own medical records may not be the best idea," 

It was one rather pathetic way of asserting some control over my life. Cancer was going to kill me, and I did not intend to die yet." 

Hilliard abandoned the idea of assisted suicide and then agreed to the treatment. Gebel reported:

Back in 2010, the drug had just recently been approved for stomach cancer patients and promised a slightly longer life expectancy — 11 to 13 months longer. It was a long shot: Only 20 percent of cancer patients have the HER-2 protein surrounding the cancer cell targeted by the drug.

Hillard’s metastatic tumors had that specific protein. And eight years later, it still puzzles him … well, the statistics do. Stomach cancer at his stage has an 18-percent survival rate, and, not to mention, is one of the most uncommon cancers in America.

“I wake up every day shocked at how non-dead I am,”

Since 2010, Hilliard and his wife have traveled to South America, Dubai, Singapore and Sydney, he has become an outspoken patient advocate, a blogger at professional forums and a fundraiser for cancer research.

Assisted suicide ends life when a person is at their lowest point. 

How many people like Hilliard were denied the opportunity of a new life because they died by assisted suicide?