Khin Myint on His Sister's Decision to Die

In Slate, Khin Myint says he accepted his sister's decision to die as her right. But "It took me years more to realize something deeper about how we view human euthanasia." He writes about the difficulty of accepting her decision because she experienced psychotic breaks and so the choice might not meet whatever standards there are for independent, rational judgment. My sister Theda had been bedridden for seven years when she first decided she wanted to die. She was 32 then, and a mysterious chronic illness had diminished her will to live. Though it wasn’t legal in Australia at the time, she wanted to die by euthanasia. Technically, this would classify the death she wished for as a suicide. But ethically—and within the family—we understood it differently. ... When we recognize that mental and physical illnesses are not so cleanly divided, we can also question the usefulness of that “divide” for deciding on someone’s right to die. Should a person experiencing a temporary mental health episode be considered a euthanasia candidate? Everyone would agree the answer is no. Just like someone experiencing a bad case of mononucleosis shouldn’t be given the right to a medically assisted death, nor should someone experiencing an episode of depression. But should someone’s right to die be explicitly about their diagnosis? When someone’s suffering is intolerable and without an end in sight, that should be enough of a reason to consider their right to a peaceful death, on a case-by-case basis. We should listen to people in that situation when they ask for more rights, no matter the cause of their illness, as a cause may not be able to be neatly untangled. ... I wasn’t mad at Theda for ending her life. She had chosen euthanasia after reaching the end of what she could tolerate. I knew that it no longer mattered whether her illness had been in her body or mind. All I knew is that she was no longer suffering.