Document Type
Argument Essay
Publication Date
1994
Excerpt
One of the saddest experiences of my life was the time I visited my sister-in-law, Bonnie, at her bedside in the University of Michigan Hospital. During the trip to see her, memories of the energetic, hardworking woman filled my mind as tears filled my eyes. When Bonnie was diagnosed with cancer of the stomach, her doctor said she would have six months to live. I did not have the opportunity to visit her until three months after the diagnosis. When I first saw her, my heart sank like a lead weight--Bonnie had transformed into a weak, eighty-pound skeleton. The cancer was ravaging her body and she was too exhausted even to lift her arms to give me a hug. What was most devastating to realize was the fact that her mind was sound, yet the doctors could do nothing to alleviate the torture that the cancer made her endure. Chemotherapy did not even touch the cancer, but Bonnie lost all of her hair due to the treatment. Bonnie's husband and daughter could only stand by her side and painfully watch the disease slowly take away their beloved. Bonnie faced the fact that she would die soon, but the horrendous pain she endured was so prevalent in her eyes. Three months later, my thirty-five-year-old sister-in-law appeared like a ninety-year-old woman lying in her casket. It was torture for every person who loved her to witness such a slow and miserable death.
Recommended Citation
Bobenmoyer, Sara, "Physician-Assisted Suicide: Mercy or Murder? (1994)" (1994). The Valpo Core Reader. 286.
http://scholar.valpo.edu/core_reader/286