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Religion See other Religion Articles Title: Grieving Mother Suffers "Unspeakable Pain" at Hands of Catholic Church This Grieving Mom Says What the Catholic Church Did to Her Was a “Slap in the Face” The mother of Brittany Maynard, the young woman who chose to take her own life rather than endure the ravages of a brain tumor, has issued a strong rebuke to the comments of a Vatican official who criticized the decision. Debbie Ziegler says the comments were made as the family was deep in grief, and were “more than a slap in the face.” Only a few days after Maynard’s death, the Vatican’s chief bioethics official called her action “reprehensible,” and called for a condemnation of physician-assisted suicide. After her diagnosis, Maynard and her husband, her mother and stepfather, moved from California to Oregon in order to take advantage of that state’s “Death with Dignity” law. In her statement, which appeared on the Compassion & Choices website, Ziegler wrote: Reprehensible is a word I’ve used as a teacher to describe the actions of Hitler, other political tyrants and the exploitation of children by pedophiles. As Brittany Maynard’s mother, I find it difficult to believe that anyone who knew her would ever select this word to describe her actions. Before her death, the 29-year-old Maynard made the decision to publicize her situation, hoping it would educate others and expand “Death with Dignity” legislation to more states. Currently, Oregon, Washington, and Vermont have such laws. New Jersey and other states are considering comparable legislation. Maynard’s obituary read, Oregon is a place that strives to protect patient rights and autonomy; she wished that her home state of California had also been able to provide terminally ill patients with the same choice. Maynard was diagnosed on January 1, 2014, with the fatal brain tumor. In April doctors estimated she had less than six months to live. She and her family filled the last few months with time together and shared experiences. The week before she died, they visited the Grand Canyon, although Brittany was in constant pain and was having seizures. In a video released a few months ago, Ziegler, 56, said she was committed to supporting her daughter in whatever she decided: [I’ve told her] no matter which way you want to do this – and the choice is yours all the time – if you want me to bathe you and feed you and go the long way, I will do that. Brittany also spoke of her hopes for her mother and her husband: If all my dreams came true, I would somehow survive this but I most likely won’t. So beyond that, having been an only child for my mother, I want her to recover from this and not break down, not suffer from any kind of depression. I want him to be happy, so I want him to have a family. There’s no part of me that wants him to live out the rest of his life just missing his wife. The Catholic Church is in the position of reiterating its longstanding doctrine, and of course many Conservatives agree with the church’s position. Others believe the decision about when to die should be in the hands of the individual. This is social issue on which consensus is unlikely to come soon. Poster Comment: This is despicable, even with the Catholic Church and its ban against suicide. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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