Why Woman Battling Same Terminal Brain Cancer as Brittany Maynard Says, "There's No Way I'll Kill Myself"

Teresa Neumann : Oct 10, 2014
Maggie Karner – The Federalist

"Death sucks. And while this leads many to attempt to calm their fears by grasping for personal control over the situation, as a Christian with a Savior who loves me dearly and who has redeemed me from a dying world, I have a higher calling... As for my cancer journey, circumstances out of my control are not the worst thing that can happen to me. The worst thing would be losing faith, refusing to trust in God's purpose in my life and trying to grab that control myself." –Maggie Karner

Many Americans are hearing the much touted and heavily publicized story of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman with terminal brain cancer who was given 6-months to live and has scheduled her time of death in Oregon, though insisting her action is NOT suicide. (Photo via The Federalist)

"There is not a cell in my body that is suicidal or that wants to die," Maynard told People Magazine in an exclusive interview. "I want to live. I wish there was a cure for my disease, but there's not."

Subsequently, Maynard has launched a campaign with Compassion & Choices, an "end-of-life choice advocacy organization" that is pushing to legalize euthanasia nationwide.

In response to Maynard's campaign, Maggie Karner—another woman battling the same type of aggressive brain cancer and prognosis—has published an article in The Federalist explaining why there's no way she would kill herself. Karner's incredibly rational and sensitive argument for life is well worth reading in its entirety.

Expressing first her deep compassion for Maynard, saying she cried when she watched the video, Karner went on to challenge Maynard's contention that she will not be committing suicide when she takes her own life and addresses the fallacy that assisted suicide is about death "with dignity."

"There isn't any dignity in cancer or other debilitating illness," says Karner." In my own treatment, I've been poked, prodded, radiated, chemotherapied, and cut open so many times that I stopped worrying about being dignified quite some time ago. Instead, I prefer to get my dignity by appreciating the dear people who care for me with their individual expressions of love and prayers on my behalf."

Karner then quotes Dr. Eric Chevlen who once said, "Just as rape is not about sex, euthanasia is not about comforting the dying. It is about power. What is intolerable to the [assisted suicide advocate] is not suffering or dying, but not having control over life and death."

Concluded Karner, "I pray [Brittany Maynard] changes her mind and decides to allow others to care for her in her illness. I felt blessed that my tumor came later in my life (I'm 51), and I have had the gift of raising three lovely daughters. I want my girls to learn servant hood and selflessness as they care for me. And I also want them to know that, for Christians, our death is not the end. Because our Savior, Jesus Christ, selflessly endured an ugly death on the cross and was laid in a borrowed tomb (no "death with dignity" there), He truly understands our sorrows and feelings of helplessness. I want my kids to know that Christ's Resurrection from that borrowed grave confirms that death could not hold Him, and it cannot hold me either—a baptized child of God!"

Click here to read Karner's poignant argument against euthanasia in its entirety.