If you’re someone who is suffering from a terminal illness and you have only a few months to live, should you be allowed to choose how and when to die? Ten states in the US now let patients do just that — a practice referred to as medical aid in dying — under highly regulated laws.
A Dad Needs His Daughter’s Help to Die
Esmé Deprez is a journalist whose father, Ron Deprez, had ALS and slowly lost his ability to complete basic tasks. His quality of life was no longer good and he decided he wanted to die on his own terms before things got worse for him. Luckily, they lived in Maine, one of the states where Medical Aid in Dying is lawful. One day Ron told his daughter that he wanted to end his life — and
that he needed her help doing it.
In April 2020, Esmé Deprez’s father became the second person to end his life under the Maine Death with Dignity Act. She described her experience for Bloomberg. In March 2020, Esmé recalls receiving a text message from her father saying that he needed her help to qualify for this new medical-aid-in-dying law that Maine had just passed. At the time, Maine’s law was brand-new and nobody had
used it yet. Doctors didn’t even really know how it worked.
Ron needed his daughter’s help navigating how to qualify for the law and in helping him, she realized how hard it was to do so. She understood why, as choosing to die is an extreme act to take, and so these laws are structured so that you can’t just decide on a whim to do it. These laws discourage all but the most committed candidates.
Honoring Her Father’s Wishes
