If you’ve been keeping up with your social media, then you’ve probably heard of 29-year-old Brittany Maynard. Maynard was diagnosed with Stage 4 brain cancer earlier this year. By April, doctors determined she only had six months to live. But instead of letting the cancer kill her, she decided it was her choice when to die. Nov. 1 was Maynard’s prefixed date of death. She sat in her bed as her loved ones watched her swallow a pill that would take her life in 30 minutes. Death with Dignity, it’s called.

Maynard has single-handedly reignited the controversial, nationwide debate about the Death with Dignity law, which has been enacted in three states: Oregon (where Maynard lived), Washington and Vermont.  To be eligible, a person must be diagnosed with a terminal illness, have less than six months to live, be sound of mind and be a resident of one of the practicing states. Then, a doctor can give the patient a pill that can be taken at any time as long as it is self-administered.

At first glance, the law seems fairly simple. But it’s not. For one, there are so many unpredictable factors that come into play. What criteria determine who is mentally competent? How do we know they won’t become mentally incompetent after the pill has been administered? How will we know the person took the pill themselves? Will doctors even try to help remediate terminal illnesses, or will they just give patients the easy way out? All these questions and so many more arise out of this law. It’s a policy where lines are blurred and impossible to know if they’ve been crossed until it’s too late.

There’s also the problem that this law could become a gateway to euthanasia. Take a look at our European friends, for example. The Netherlands passed a law in 2002 that allowed for both physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. And just this year, it has now extended the law to children. While this may not happen in America, by passing the Death with Dignity law, we are opening up a can of worms that can’t be undone.

Furthermore, nothing seems dignified in this law. Many people will argue that Death with Dignity is not suicide, and that it is rude to call it so. No matter what we call it, it is still suicide in its most basic form. It’s still choosing to take one’s life intentionally.

People are so afraid to die helpless and in pain, which is understandable. My grandfather died of pancreatic cancer, and the day before, he couldn’t move and could barely speak. It hurt a lot to see him that way, and I would never wish anybody to suffer through death. But in those short six months I had with my grandpa after his diagnosis were some of the most meaningful. Terminal illnesses, in a strange way, brought us closer together. Without my grandpa’s cancer, I don’t think I would be as close as I was to him. And ultimately, what is more valuable? Dying with “dignity” or dying knowing that you’ve become closer to your loved ones?

And there’s always that glimmer of hope. Take for example Charles Burrows. According to an article in Forbes titled “Cancer Miracles,” Burrows discovered a peculiar lump in his stomach that was causing him pain in 2005. When he went to the hospital, he was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer. Doctors refused to treat him, claiming he could live anywhere from 30 days to 60 years. That was until 2006. In February, Burrows began developing abdominal bloating, shaking, chills and nausea. Soon he could not feel the lump in his stomach. By then, he had found a doctor that would treat him, but the doctor couldn’t find a tumor anywhere, and so Burrows went to another doctor with the same results. His cancer was gone and has been gone for eight years, and with no explanation as to why or how. Burrows is not the only miracle case. There’s always a chance for cure, no matter how small the odds. Choosing to participate in Death with Dignity ruins those odds forever. 

The pope called Death with Dignity “a false sense of compassion,” and I would have to agree. Instead of passing laws to end pain with death, we should find ways to better eliminate pain through medicine and improving the methods for treating terminal illnesses.