"The Choice" referred to in the title I believe is ultimately about Eric Meyer's struggle with poisoning his daughter's cells in order to cease the control of cancer cells within the child's brain. It's a choice, should he or should he not continue with the medication for his daughter orally.
Because of the conditions within the family dynamics, rather than a choice it's a life or death matter. For if the horrible tasting medication isn't given to the child she will end up dying due to brain cancer. It's a life and death matter and a choice whether this father lets his daughter continue to live in agony and or just let the cancer take over her completely.
The author uses the word "poison" because that's exactly what the medication is ultimately, poison. It's a medication that kills not just cancer cells but ALL growing accumulating cells within the child's body.
It's pretty justified as to why the child wanted to play with a toy which was intended for children older than she. In the back of her mind she knew that she really wasn't going to make it to grow older like the rest of the kids around her. She wanted to be able to have a chance with/at something and take advantage of the opportunity before it was her time to go.
Hypothetically if I had been put in the same situation and I wouldn't have made it to 30, I'm not very sure what I would want to do before I die in all honesty. I say this because as I write this, as I think as I do all of these things I am here in the moment still alive. I'm still breathing, my heart is still beating and to me this alone seems enough because I am still experiencing what it is to be alive.
Under the circumstances of dealing with life or death, I find it completely appropriate to deal with a level of discomfort to a certain extent. After nothing else can be done for an individual and they are so much in pain it's almost like torture to be alive then this is the point where it's time to let go. As bad as you want to keep someone alive due to the fear of losing them forever, sometimes the better thing to do is to just let them ago. To be able to step aside from your own fears of death, I find it selfish to keep someone alive when that individuals quality of life is beyond the point of recovery.
Some suffer for an amount of time to bore a new born baby, some suffer due to risking their own lives for others and some suffer due to an inflicted sickness that's planted a strong grip on them as a whole. To be able to suffer and know you are going to make it out alive is understandable, to suffer because others are trying to keep you alive is complete torture. Though you know your loved one is going to die and you, the alive body will suffer a great deal of pain (mentally more so than physically) do know that the sick one isn't suffering anymore. You sacrificed your own thoughts/feelings,etc. to spare someone that is free from pain in the afterlife now.
After reading this article "The Choice" You can clearly see that the author is writing all of this material from his heart. The reader experiences the pain and loss that this man went through because they are seeing from the author's eyes and feeling from the author's perspective (metaphorically speaking). I'm not one to cry however after reading this article I did feel a pretty strong physiological response in the sense that my throat became tight, I wanted to cry.
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