In an opinion piece in The Bulletin on June 7, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat asked, “Do we have the right to die on our own terms?”

His answer to that question was: “no.” Although we may have sympathy for persons who are terminally ill and who may be suffering physically and emotionally, we should not open the door to assisted suicide, he wrote, because of the morally perilous “slippery slope” of decision-making in the question of whether a person should be allowed to choose to die. So, in his view, it doesn’t matter whether a person might be hooked up to tubes or ventilators, or might be losing his personal dignity while going through the final “heroics” of medical care, or perhaps moving into a vegetative state just waiting for the end to come. No matter what the circumstances, life must go on. One might ask whether that is preserving life or merely delaying death.

How cruel.

We are kinder to our pets. We love our pets. They become like family to us. But sometimes, due to age or disease or conditions we cannot control, we realize that we must make the very hard decision to “put them to sleep” rather than letting them suffer until death takes them from us. But we must not allow humans the same right to decide their own time of passing, the author says, and suggests that assisting a person to commit suicide is an act of murder.

If we do not have the right to make that choice the alternative is simply to wait for death to occur when it eventually will, after all medical procedures and prescriptions have finally run their course, regardless of whatever pain and suffering there may be for the person and for family and friends, and regardless of cost issues, and regardless of the person’s own desires.

But why should we not have the right to die on our own terms?

Most of us would say that the cost of medical care required to keep a person alive should not be an issue, though in reality it is, of course, to the family’s resources, or to insurance funds, or to government funds, or to the doctors and hospitals. Seldom is medical care given without cost. Hopefully, cost will never be a deciding factor, though due to the increasing debts of our federal and state governments it looms as a growing possibility.

The deciding factor should be quality of life, and people should have the right to make that evaluation for themselves and make whatever decision is appropriate in their individual case. Persons who are capable of making a thoughtful decision should be able to seek counsel from family, friends, doctors, and from spiritual, financial, and legal counselors, and then choose to stay in a hospital, engage hospice care, stay at home or do whatever they believe is appropriate in their individual circumstances, including the right to receive assisted suicide.

Some might argue that God gave life and only God should end it. However, this argument is built on a half-truth. To say that God created the universe and created life on earth does not mean that God is the creator of each individual life. In reality, we know where babies come from, and how to cause, or prevent, a pregnancy. A man and a woman choose whether, and when, to have a baby. While some couples who are unable to conceive may turn to God through prayer, asking him to grant their desire for a child, most couples seek the help of medical procedures or fertility pills to accomplish the pregnancy. In reality, humans make the choices that bring forth new life.

And since humans decide the beginning of life, they can also decide the ending of life. In each case, whether choosing to start life or choosing to end it, the individual(s) involved should carefully consider all relevant information and, free of undue pressures, make the decisions that are right for them. Humans have been given the ability to think, to plan, and to make decisions, including the basic choices regarding life and death.

So, to the question, “Do we have a right to die on our own terms?” the answer is: Yes.