Death with dignity — it’s something we all hope for when the time comes.

Recently 29-year-old Brittany Maynard, suffering from glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive form of terminal brain cancer, made national headlines when she shared publicly her decision to end her life.

She had just a few months to live, and instead of focusing on her own personal struggles, she became an advocate for living life to the fullest and then ending it with the assistance of her doctor in Oregon.

It’s been 20 years since Oregon passed its Death with Dignity Act, and in that time more than 1,000 people have been able to legally obtain life-ending medication from their doctors, with two-thirds of those choosing to take the medicine.

When Brittany Maynard, 29, found she had aggressive brain cancer and had six months to live, she and her family moved to Oregon to take advantage of its Death with Dignity law.

Courtesy Brittany Maynard

Four states now have physician-assisted suicide, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and, by court ruling, Montana. It’s still illegal everywhere else in the country, including Hawaii.

Why?

A good friend of mine just had to put her elderly dog down because he was suffering. The poor animal could no longer walk, was blind, constantly in pain, deaf, and was clearly not going to get better.

Most people I know in that scenario would want to be the ones holding their beloved pet, sharing not just its life but also its death in the most humane way possible. No one would question it. Why let a pet suffer?

I see people suffer all the time, terminally ill with cancer, heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. None of these diagnoses forecasts a comfortable end of life. Intractable pain, the sensation of drowning in fluid building up the lungs, air hunger —these symptoms are not exaggerations, and do cause suffering.

Once the suffering and pain begin, is it really up to any one of us to decide for another person that length of life trumps quality of life in the end?

Sure, we have hospice services, and there are several in the state that do a wonderful job.

I have personally witnessed the amazing comfort that the people who work for hospices have brought to my patients’ last days. Their goal is comfort care, for patients and their loved ones. In fact, surveyors are offered counseling for months, even years, afterward.

The benefits are immeasurable, but hospices are only allowed to provide treatment for symptoms, which means that someone has to be suffering to receive medication for pain, shortness of breath, etc.

But why is it still illegal in Hawaii to have a physician prescribe medication for people who are terminally ill and want the option to end their lives on their own terms?

Politics plays a role. When health care reform advocates pushed for insurance coverage for people to receive end-of-life counseling, they were accused of proposing “death squads.”

That’s a dysfunction in national politics, and something we should be able to push past in our own state Legislature.

In fact, a December 2011 poll found that three out of four Hawaii residents favored giving people diagnosed with a terminal disease the option to receive medication from their doctor to bring about their peaceful death.

However, that same month, Attorney General David M. Louie issued an opinion that manslaughter charges could be brought against any physician who willingly prescribes a medication with the intention of helping someone end their life.

Perhaps it also has something to do with semantics. “Physician-assisted suicide” is technically correct, but sounds like some kind of crime. Suicide in general is investigated by the medical examiner and the police.

Euthanasia might be a better descriptor, and doesn’t have the same societal bias.

The current requirements that Oregon has already established could be mimicked here.

“Physician-assisted suicide” might harken back to the days of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the maverick physician who was arrested, tried and convicted of second-degree murder for assisting people who wanted to end their lives.

In jail for eight years, he was released in 2007 and passed away in 2011. His method included lethal injection, and he did not have criteria that required someone to be terminally ill.

The four states that have Death with Dignity acts would have allowed Kevorkian to assist those seeking to die if they met strict medical criteria and had not one, but two, psychiatric evaluations to make sure that they were not suffering from depression and were making the decision in sound mind.

But here in Hawaii, if I were to give a patient enough pills to hasten his or her death, I could be arrested and prosecuted just as Kevorkian was 15 years ago.

It’s time for us to follow the other four states and adopt our own Death With Dignity act.

The current requirements that Oregon has already established could be mimicked here. Patients diagnosed with terminal illnesses who have passed psychological evaluations should be able to request the prescription of medication that would allow them to end their lives and avoid suffering.

Physicians could choose to participate and receive certain credentials to be able to provide this option for their patients. It would be entirely voluntary, with neither party at risk. Education about the process would be a key part of the program, and hospice-like services could be offered to both the doctors and the families involved.

Opponents argue that it’s impossible for anyone to know if they will live longer than expected even with a deadly diagnosis. This is true, but once the suffering and pain begin, is it really up to any one of us to decide for another person that length of life trumps quality of life in the end?

The brave young woman who made headlines when she announced her plans to take her life has ended her suffering.

I hope that someday, I will be able to do the same in the appropriate circumstances, and not be committing a crime in the process.