What Would You Do?

People are talking about the shocking suicide of director Tony Scott. Reports are that he suffered from inoperable brain cancer and that could have been the reason why he jumped to his death from a suspension bridge in Los Angeles.

Reportedly he left behind notes for his family and friends.

Meanwhile, they are devastated with his passing.

I have personally known people with a terminal illness who like Tony Scott had loved ones. None of them chose to end it all.

Is choosing to take your own life when you are terminally ill a heroic act or is it the act of a coward???

On one hand, you could say that perhaps he wanted to spare his family the pain of watching his health deteriorate when he felt there was no hope.

It reminds me of Alaina Giordano, the mom who lost custody of her children due to her Stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis. She continually amazed her doctors by her beating the odds and living well with cancer. She did sadly pass recently but one of the many things I learned from Alaina was how to live life well in spite of a terminal illness.

Alaina never complained and lived bravely right up to the end.

Was Tony Scott a coward by choosing to end his life on his terms?

I wonder what his family thinks. Knowing that someone you love has a terminal illness and watching them die is not pleasant but he took the chance away from his family for them to support him and spend as much time as they could with him until he got very ill.

Maybe it was his love for his family that caused him to make the choice to end his life. Maybe he couldn't bear to watch their pain as they cared for him during his final time here.

I don't know. If I was in the same situation I don't know what I would choose.

I know I would never want to cause my family pain but I also would not want to leave them until I absolutely had to.

Does that make me a bit selfish?

Maybe it does.

No one will ever know why Tony Scott chose suicide. I imagine it was the hardest choice that he ever made. Was it brave? Perhaps it was.

Maybe it was a self-less act for him to leave this world before his family had to go through months of watching him die.

What do you think?

What would you do?