Only if you have a round chambered and the safety off 
But you’d have exactly the same horrible symptoms before suicide as before the coma. Why not go into a coma instead?
Yeah, unless you just blow half your face off and then flop around in agonizing pain 'cause you just, well, blew half your face off.
I took it that Contrapuntal meant he was not willing to risk the onset of phase 3, which is where the serious pain begins. Per the OP, he’s already in phase 2 when presented with the decision, which means that he is experiencing progressively worse flu symptoms. Now, admittedly that’s not as bade as bone-cancer level pain, but it’s still pretty bad, and if you let it go on to long, you’re not going to be ABLE to commit suicide.
Add to that the fact that in real life, diseases do not present as on Star Trek: there’s not going to be a countdown and sharp demarcations. There must be some metabolic markers that the doctors use to determine what phase you’re in, but passing from phase to phase is not like turning a corner; it’s going to be gradual and somewhat unpredictable.
In short: in early phase 2, the patient will possess the ability to decide to check out on his or her own terms. In late phase two–maybe even mid-phase two–he or she won’t. Wait too long and you won’t have the choice in any state by Oregon & Washington.
Go back and re-read the post of mine you quoted. I said I’d do it *before *the symptoms set in. And then re-read option #3 again. It involves checking out on one’s own terms, and *not *waiting for the horrible shit to happen.
Again, I attach a very low probability to that. And it wasn’t in the OP’s premise, so I’m not sure why it matters. You might as well postulate that the pharmaceutical cocktail would be tainted, or that you would have a natural immunity to Virus X.
Shooting yourself is of course just an example, but if suicide is truly the best opition you’ll want the method most likely to work quickly and certainly. My only issue with shooting myself in this context is that I’d worry that even though Virus X is ordinarly not communcable at this stage, the blood and such might infect whoever found my body.
As for contacting the persons you interacted with during the lost week–I’m sure the CDC would already being doing that.
Actually, I almost always find that poster’s threads interesting and worthwhile.
On to the original question, I wouldn’t give up hope. I’d have a talk with my doctor about which option would give me the greatest chance of ending up mentally functional (even if the chance is very remote, I’ll take the less-remote one). If that means holding me in the coma for as long as possible in the hope of a cure, then I’ll just tough it out through the pain as best I can. If that means taking the nectar and ambrosia and hoping for some future treatment that can reverse the brain damage, I’ll opt for that instead. In either case, I’d sign whatever paperwork was needed in advance to authorize experimental procedures, since even if I can’t get out with my own mind intact, I’d at least further science that way.
Of course, this is all assuming that the resources are available for whatever I choose. If it’s a situation where my family can afford to either keep me alive and under medical attention or send my as-yet hypothetical children to college, my decision might be different, but once you start getting into things like that, I don’t think I can say what my decision would be without actually being in that situation.
I’ll go for death. I’ve no wish to be a burden on my family.
Hospital care would be very expensive, so put me down for eating lead [or some nondisfiguring reasonably instant and painless form of suicide. Probably versed and something like potassium …]
I would go home, put my affairs in order, tell SWMBO I love her, then drive out in the countryside and shoot myself. Your other two choices are unacceptable.
Oddly enough, just last night while on call in the ICU, I was listening to the ICU doc and a nurse reminisce about how one of their former patients was a young man who tried the old “shotgun in the mouth” and managed to blow off most his face without actually killing himself. He lingered in the ICU for about 10 days before dying of a complication. It’s not as foolproof as you might think!
Of course, if you already have a lethal disease that is going to kill you within a week even if you got the best medical care available, I suspect that the shotgun in the mouth would be a really good accelerant for Thanatos.
See, that’s exactly the kind of scenario I’m talking about. Which is why I’d go with “coma at the point where I’d otherwise commit suicide” or “painless and foolproof suicide method (think drug overdose).”
Since I never said it was foolproof, I don’t really know what you are talking about.
A drug overdose is foolproof? No one ever attempts suicide by drugs and is unsuccessful? What world are you living in?
I’m talking a guaranteed overdose of something like morphine, administered by a doctor. Not some stupid kid swallowing half a bottle of Advil.
Except that you are describing euthanasia, currently illegal in all US states save Washington and Oregeon. Many doctors will refuse to perform it.
So getting a doctor to commit murder is a reasonable solution, and killing oneself with a gun isn’t? I think you’re picking just to be picky. Nice talking to you.
Add to that the fact that, even if the doctor is willing, the FAMILY may not be. And, as I wrote upthread, I’m not convinced that coma patients don’t experience pain.
Well, we’re discussing an improbable disease with an improbable result to the cure. I’m not allowed to add legalized euthanasia to the table? You’re no fun.
Whereas I think you’re being touchy just to be touchy. I’m genuinely interested why anyone would choose a method of suicide that is, to me, so fraught with potential to go horribly wrong. Hell, the doctor could just tell me the correct dosage and I’d steal the morphine and administer it myself, if involving another person is what’s getting you all bent out of shape. And I’m still curious as to why you’d choose suicide over a coma at the same point.
ETA:
But we have ways of measuring whether someone is experiencing pain.
I would either commit suicide if I could do it in a quick, certain and painless manner (I wouldn’t be brave enough to eat a bullet, but I’d be brave enough to swallow some pills, I think) or go for the coma.
The thought of losing my mental capacities scares the crap out of me. To me, that would be far worse than a quick clean death.
“To the well ordered mind, Death is merely the next great adventure.” --Albus Dumbledore (I think I want that on my gravestone…)