The Associated Press
LOUISVILLE - When she entered a national contest on essays in ethics, Yvette Cabrera-Rojas of Louisville faced competition from people writing on academic topics such as Augustinian free will and the ethical dilemmas of South African Jews.
Her topic was far more personal, drawn from years of taking care of her father as he died slowly from multiple sclerosis, the same degenerative disease she has.
For her essay on suffering, dying and assisted suicide, Mrs. Cabrera-Rojas won second place among nearly 500 entries in the contest, sponsored by the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity.
Mrs. Cabrera-Rojas said she thought her essay was "too personal," but that's what gave it its power, according to Mr. Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, Holocaust survivor and author of several books.
"All of us were impressed by the passion and compassion that we felt in her essay," Mr. Wiesel said at a Dec. 4 awards ceremony in New York, where his foundation is based. "The relationship between father and daughter comes through in all its complexity and riches. Surely for anyone involved in ethical endeavors, her essay is important because it comes from someone who has experienced it."
Though Mrs. Cabrera-Rojas had hoped to bring her father, Pedro Cabrera, to the awards ceremony, she was able to tell him of her award several weeks before his death on Nov. 24.
"We've been discussing that topic (end-of-life decisions) for several years now, and he didn't agree with my philosophy, but he was really proud that I had won," she said.
Mrs. Cabrera-Rojas, 41, works as a paralegal, studies at the University of Louisville and is raising a teenage son. She wrote the essay last year when she "was really angry" over her father's deterioration.
"I thought," `Is this what life holds for me? Is this going to be my future?'"
Mrs. Cabrera-Rojas said she believed terminally ill patients should have the option of assisted suicide, a notion rejected by her father, who was Catholic. "He said, `My life is not mine to take,'" she recalled.
"I honored all of my dad's requests because I would want someone to do that for me," she said.
Assisted suicide is illegal in every state except Oregon.
"When I get to that point, that option may not be available to me," she said. "I may not want it, but it would be nice to have it."
Mrs. Cabrera-Rojas began her essay by describing her nightly routine, tucking her quadriplegic father into bed with his sheets at the right position, positioning his pillow just right so he wouldn't choke in his sleep, turning on the nursery monitor so she could hear any changes in the night.
She then recounted her father's gradual deterioration, his constant risk of infected sores and his determination to continue living. She then turned to the general issue of assisted suicide, weighing the legal, moral and religious issues involved.
She wrote that someone facing a slow, painful death often has to make stark choices, ranging from taking mind-blitzing painkillers to refusing food to enlisting a relative or doctor in assisting the dying person's suicide, putting that person at risk of prosecution.
"What I find is that those who have not suffered or have not witnessed suffering tend to be the most vocal advocates against euthanasia," she wrote.
A New Jersey native and daughter of Cuban immigrants, Mrs. Cabrera-Rojas earned a $2,500 prize for her essay.
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