Death with Dignity?

The media has been abuzz with the decision of 29-year old Brittany Maynard to end her own life in a matter of weeks after a terminal diagnosis of late stage brain cancer. Her decision brings light to the Death with Dignity Act, which pushes to allow end of life decisions "to be made solely between a patient and a physician." What first compels us to Maynard is her young age, and her newlywed status. No young, vibrant woman with so much life ahead of her should have to die. This is grievous, and we mourn the unfairness of it all.

But what I mourn more is Maynard's decision to dictate death on her terms, with the belief that it allows her the dignity that her diagnosis has robbed her of. It is as if to say that we can atone the cruelty of death by choosing it rather than succumbing to it. But death has already been swallowed up in victory, and in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we are assured that death does not have the final say. It is not my intent to trivialize Maynard's suffering, or the injustice of one so young coming to terms with the end of her life, but to say that our dignity has been secured by one who loved us to endure the indignity of the cross so that we may have life.