Death should be personal choice

I'm writing to express my support for The Death With Dignity movement in Vermont. As a practicing RN for many years, I have had first hand experience with death and dying, and the myriad of ways this is accomplished in North America today. The slow but steady increase in palliative care and/or hospice care in Vermont is welcomed for the terminally ill, and provides a great service for the dying, their families and their caregivers.

However, the issue of the patient's control over their death is a separate issue, and is the key to this controversy. Without doubt, my preference would be to have the ability to choose (once my terminal diagnosis is made), either when and how I will die, or conversely, to choose to have no control over the events of my eventual death. That would be my personal choice.

Opponents of the DWD movement want to take the ability to make that personal choice away from people. Whatever their sometimes uneducated and misinformed reasons are for their opposition, they still have no right to dictate how I want to live or die. I would respect and honor their choice, however much I disagreed with their beliefs. I, and many others, only deserve the same acceptance and tolerance from them, and the right to choose.

Nicky Ford RN
Enosburg, VT