' Right To Die '
Do you believe?? Why/why not
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M$4 Answers
We are meeting everyone’s needs but the one who is dying. We hook them up to machines to let them breathe. We stick a tube into their stomach to provide nourishment. We surround them with monitors that blink and beep constantly. To keep them “comfortable” in the midst of this technological horror we keep them heavily sedated.
Death is a normal process of life. It should be a gentle release from this reality to the reality beyond. Now it is surrounded by regulations and ethics boards. The Catholic bishops have ruled that, despite any end of life requests, a patient in a Catholic facility must be provided with a feeding tube it they cannot eat.
It is very difficult to watch a loved one’s body die. When technological means are offered. one never questions if the intervention is prolonging life or just staving off death. There comes a time to all of us when we must surrender the miracle of life to the miracle of death. Even if this requires the doctor to refrain from treatment. If the body is not ready to die, then the person's physical needs should be met without the intervention of technology, until the time comes when the body cannot be sustained naturally. Just as technology cannot be the means for the un-natural extension of life, neither should it be used to terminate life. The body knows when to die.
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M$I do not agree that there is an inherent evil or inherent criminality to suicide. I do clearly see and agree that society has a (to me unreasonable) problem with anyone who has decided for whatever reason to end their life but do not understand the base motivation for such a concern. Perhaps it is an outdated and arcane religious dogma and sin stigma attached to suicide that fuels the half false concerns of one stranger for another and the suicide of either of them.
I suspect it might be religion and I am a spiritual person with a faith in a Supreme Being or Higher Power but do not feel at all this popularly named as "God" Higher Power would be in any way pointing the "That's a mortal sin!" or the "Straight to Hell with you!" finger at one who chose to end their own life. That makes zero sense to me. 0.
If there is another reason the negative and criminal stigma attached to a persons choosing to end their life please explain to to me. I am above all interested in my own education on the world, other people, and introspective self discovery and will personally investigate all ideas presented to me. I could be very accurately described as "Eager to learn".
I know this is not a popular or maybe not even a twice held opinion but I feel if anyone of the legal adult age has been through the advice of doctors and counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists, family and friends, and/or what that person considers "reasonable investigation of suicide alternatives" and still has the burning or deep desire to end their own life then they should be able to legally in a safe, clean, and medically assisted environment and asking for more than I will ever get.....free of the negative judgment of others.
personal opinion
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M$
It's Darwinian. Survival of the species.
It's probably based on a lot of common sense too wherein people go through tough periods, but once they get to the other side life doesn't seem so bad and their glad the unthinkable didn't happen - that someone intervened.
Terminal illness may be a rightful exception - and if you get involved with this aspect of life, you will find that self-administered morphine is the medical professions support of a patient choosing when they want to die.
Weird my comment disappeared here though it is still visible in my profile.
The below statements are coldly put.
Wouldn't another way to look at suicide from a Darwinian perspective be that if a member of our species has come to the conclusion that suicide it the only option then they should be allowed .. dare I say encouraged to ... commit suicide? If we look at suicide and recurring suicidal considerations and thoughts as a mental illness then for the survival of the species it would be better for the human species if they did commit suicide.
And of course in the same Darwinian perspective any terminally ill patient should be allowed to commit suicide and again even encouraged if they have considered it?...especially the terminally ill with hereditary afflictions?
Survival of the fittest and only allowing the most physically and mentally healthy members of the species to breed is what we are talking about right?
Again these statements are coldly put and I have removed the emotion from them to get to the purity of the Darwinian perspective.
"I have never seen a wild thing feel sorry for itself. A little bird will fall dead, frozen from a bough, without ever having felt sorry for itself"
D. H. Lawrence
I sat with this paper in front of me for months and have still not filled it out. Both choices are absolutely horrible and I am sad her diseases sprung on her so quickly and we did not have time to talk about things like this.
I personally believe we should have the right to die. I know many people will disagree with me. My opinion comes from watching my Dad suffer for 2 years with lung cancer when I was 13 years old. He went from a body builder at 220 pounds down to under 100 pounds when he died. I watched him suffer, cry and die slowly. I feel like the same thing is happening to my Mom. She has now lost about 50 pounds.
I pray I die fast and in my sleep, when my time comes. I think if you are diagnosed with an incurable disease it should be your choice to live or not. Maybe the person should have to undergo a series of counseling sessions to make a clear and informed decision about living or dying but I do think it should be our right.
I hope my decision does not cause controversy, this is just my own opinion and it may be wrong, it is just how I feel.
Personal thoughts
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M$
Thanks Nancy, you are so right. I had not even thought about a support group but that is a wonderful idea.
If you and your Mom did not discuss her wishes prior to her development of dementia, then you probably have no (live with yourself for the rest of your life) choice but to authorize the feeding tube and whatever else the medical profession deems necessary to keep her alive, until nature takes it's own course. Further, not giving her sustenance, just because she can't chew is a horrible sentence of death. It will take weeks for her body to starve to death.
You are in a very heart-breaking position. You should seek a support group for yourself. This is not something to undertake alone, or with just friends or the staff at the nursing home. You have much to face in the coming years and you owe it to yourself to have a network of people to tap into whenever you want, who have more than well meaning words or hugs to give.
There is a big difference between having a right to die, and being the responsible party who chooses someone else's death. There may come a point when you have no choice (and that point should be when death will be imminent in moments, not weeks), but at that point, it will be something you can live with without reservation or remorse.
Your Mom is in good hands, thanks to you. Go do the same for yourself.
God speed.
I think any one with a chronic illness that will result in very painful death should have the right to chose.
And I strongly support a living will and health care proxy at any age because no one knows when they may end up on life support, or simply unable to advocate for them selves. Now the great psychological and mental suffering ,well that is part of living and I am not sure exactly what you are referring to .
A depressed person may think death is the way but there are others .So in that case of suffering I don't think death should be an option.
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M$
