People die all of the time in many different ways for all kinds of reasons. While babies are being born, people are dying. By the time you finish reading this sentence about 25 people will have died. It sounds morbid; I know. Yet, with the frequent amount of people that are constantly dying, how many of them choose to because they believe it is their right?

The controversial right-to-die movement was brought to public light recently by the death of Brittany Maynard, a woman who was diagnosed with a likely stage four glioblastoma (an aggressive brain tumor). After being diagnosed last spring with cancer, she purposely moved to Oregon where she had the legal jurisdiction to take her own life under the Death with Dignity Act. She ended her own life “legally” with the help of a cocktail of fatal drugs on Nov. 1.

The right to die movement allows someone who is terminally ill to commit suicide or voluntarily be assisted in dying. The issue has been gaining ground in a few states like Oregon with the help of Compassion & Choices, an advocacy organization. Maynard’s decision to post an online video in association with the group has garnered a mixed response. While on one hand the YouTube video has 9.8 million views and there is a growing fund in her name, religious groups such as the Catholic church are outright condemning her method of dying.

Fortunately, I have never had to go through a terminal illness personally or with anyone in my family. So, I can only sympathize with this woman. Being a born-again Christian, I see suicide as a sinful act. Going along with the Vatican’s statement, I believe that the life you are given isn’t yours so you have no right to take it with what you assume to be “dignity.”

Maynard had a sad fate ahead of her if she had let the disease take its course, but I believe God is the only one who knew His plan for her in the end. I support that the decision to take her life is ultimately hers like suicide always has been, but taking the step to make it legal and to let physicians assist her in ending her life is going too far.

Physicians are supposed to be doing whatever they can to save her life, not mixing drugs together to help her end it painlessly. The unethical position it puts physicians in of playing God is the main reason this is not okay.

Maynard may not have been a Christian like me or Catholic, but why the Vatican has an opinion as well as myself is simple: by choosing to end her life, she had completely given up hope. Legalizing the right to give up on life is a very dangerous move for our society.

At only 29, Maynard was a beautiful woman and by leaving this Earth the way she did, she has become the face of this movement. Though this is a sad situation and I can’t even begin to imagine the pain this woman and her family went through, I cannot condone that the right-to-die movement should be expanded any further. Their intent is good, but what they are promoting is wrong.