Terminally Ill Woman Forced To Suffer

There should be no question that your life is yours and yours alone to do with as you wish.  This case terrifies me, because as long as a person is competent to make medical decisions (as she is in this case) the wishes of parents are trumping the medical rights of a 28-year-old woman.

She is paralyzed from the neck down, tethered to breathing and feeding tubes — but Manhattan bank manager Grace Sung Eun Lee still managed to mouth four words Wednesday. 

“I want to die.” 

Doctors are trying to honor Lee’s wish, but her devout parents believe that removing the tubes is suicide — a sin that would condemn the 28-year-old to hell. 

They’ve gone to court to keep the terminally ill brain-cancer patient on life support, turning a heartbreaking family tragedy into a right-to-die legal battle.

Her future is determined.  She is not going to overcome this, nor is she going to pull through.  She does not want to prolong her pain, and I do not blame her.

When I went through my medical training, we were drilled on the importance of one of the least taught aspects of our medical rights: we can refuse treatment.  This is for a host of reasons, from experimentation to personal choices to one-off situations.  But the bottom line is we can refuse treatment, and should be able to in order to have freedom over our very lives.

In this case, Lee's parents are being selfish and making their daughter pay the price.  As long as they appeal and stall she will be forced to dwindle and suffer for their hollow victory.  Nobody wins, and this case plays out over and over, all around the country.

The right to die is one we should allow and protect.  The feelings of one person should not be able to override the medical rights of another.  We need to learn our place and let freedom of choice empower people to do what they feel is right.  It's their own life, after all.