What is Death with Dignity?

I have this friend. She is sweet, beautiful, brave, generous, and talented, to use only a few words. Her name is Elizabeth and she has Stage IV cancer. She has been living with this diagnosis for over four years. This is after having been in remission from breast cancer for several years.

She recently shared on her own blog that she was beginning the last chemo option she has. That post, and the one immediately after it (about telling her kids), got me thinking about Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman who also has cancer. I see a vast difference between her response and Elizabeth's. This is Elizabeth's first blog post after receiving the Stage IV diagnosis:

It's amazing how relieved I feel. I'm not kidding. Even though I received horrible news today, I just feel so blessed. Let me explain...

For the past week, I've allowed myself to think the worst: that I have cancer all throughout my brain and only have 3-6 months to live. I've pictured losing my sight, my senses, my motor skills, my memory and my very personality. I've planned the details of my funeral and thought about what legacy I'd leave my children. And weaved throughout these practical, yet depressing thoughts, I've prayed and clung to God. He has given me a peace about coming home to heaven, yet a sadness about not having more time on this earth to put my faith into practice. I've been learning so much about God and his love and his soveriegnty and would love the opportunity to LIVE for him...not just be willing to DIE for him.

I have given my life to God (although it was never really mine to begin with)! So whenever God wants me home with him, I'm ready (and *shhh* actually looking forward to it)!

But now, I feel like I've been given this gift of LIFE....even though cancer has moved to my bones! Strange, huh?

For some reason I feel free to live every moment to the fullest. A devastating diagnosis will do that, I suppose. After all...what's really important in this life?

Disclaimer: I hope to remember this in the coming days and months when I'm weak and in pain : )

When my legs are too weak to walk, my heart will be skipping along...enjoying every breath God gives me.

And here is Brittany's choice: "When doctors told Brittany her death would likely be slow and painful as the tumor continued to grow, she opted to choose her own ending. On November 1, surrounded by her husband, mother and best friend, she will end her life using medication prescribed by her doctor" (source).

I've been wrestling with this whole thought of "death with dignity". What does that really mean? Does it mean "dying on your own terms" (which rarely happens)? Or does it mean living with dignity? Living life to its fullest ~ wholly and completely? In a sense, we are all, after all, dying. Most of us don't know when that day will be or how it will happen. Does that mean we won't face it with dignity? Or does dignity come in facing the unknown? I don't know. I do know, though, that Elizabeth has touched many lives with her transparency the past several years. Her life, not her death or a decision to end her life prematurely, will be her legacy. Personally, I think that is where the dignity lies.