I have a friend who died recently, in his forties, of a congenital disease. He wasn’t supposed to make it to age 5.
He lived in Washington, and took advantage of their Right to Die laws to get the medication; however, by the time he was ready to take it his mind had deteriorated enough (due to his liver shutting down and toxin buildup) that he couldn’t articulate it well. He said something that made his wife think he was asking for the pills, but when she said “I will give you the pills, but when you take them you will die. Are you ready for that?” he said “No, no, no!” so she didn’t. That was one of his last semi-coherent conversations, he died within a week or two.
Even though he refused it at the end, I know that having that option was a relief to him and his family.
I think what a lot of people facing a terminal illness or condition, or even a nasty chronic one, is not so much death as a way to escape feeling trapped and helpless. We all fear dying in agony. Knowing you have an out if that happens undoubtedly reduces fear and stress and makes one’s current state more bearable.
Absolutely, I think Terry Pratchett said something along those very lines, knowing that he had the option to die made it possible to live. aha, here is the article, and here the end paragraph
Given that as an axiom, isn’t mandatory organ donation if a life is at stake the morally correct choice? If I’m going to die if I don’t get a new kidney, and you’re a match for me, whatever pain or negative result you might have is less than my result of not existing at all.
I do exist in constant pain. So far it’s manageable and just affects my mobility. But it’ll continue to get worse for the rest of my life. At some point I have every intention of “not existing at all”, rather than being a total burden on my husband. And he understands.
Life is a sexually transmitted terminal condition.
My life is often painful, and I am 77 years old. The pain is not due to what is usually meant by a terminal condition, it is merely that my leg joints (hips, knees and ankles) were over-used for many years and have therefore worn out. Why do i not get the sympathy that cancer patients in pain get? Why do I have to endure pain which at times is extreme? I can see no evidence whatever of an afterlife, so all my future holds is more and more pain and less and less pleasurable activity.
If I find, when I do die, that there is a God, I will tell him/her in no uncertain terms how bad a job s/he made of creation.
I was just about to post exactly this. My wife is only 45 but has a (as yet unidentified) neuromuscular condition that often leaves her in excruciating pain. What keeps her going when she is going through a bad phase is the fact that (so far) the phase will end and she will have some good days. Her greatest fear is that some day the good days will stop coming. Her disease may be progressive but not terminal. If it is, the prospect of looking forward to the prospect of decades spent doing nothing but staying in bed writhing in pain is not something she can contemplate. (particularly if an opioid ban goes through but that’s another thread)
Even though she as no intention to commit suicide and hopes that such an act will never be necessary, but even the knowledge that such an option is available would take a great load off her mind.
Which it is very easy to say as someone who is not existing in constant pain. Perhaps the person living in the pain should decide whether it is better.
If the prospect of non existence scares you to the extent that you would endure any pain to avoid it, then that is fine for you. Rather like a acrophobic should not take a job as a high rise construction worker. But for those for whom the prospect of non-existance is a welcome relief, they should be allowed to take that option.
Sorry for the triple post, but I just realized that the combination of this thought along with Sampti’s non-belief in the afterlife is a truly terrifying combination for one person to believe.
Most people who contemplate the possibility of an afterlife consider the Christian style hell of eternal torment to be the most horrible thing they can contemplate, and will do anything to avoid that fate. Sampti, however, finds such an eternity of torture inherently preferable to the non-existance that he believes actually awaits him. That is some scary existential shit to live with. I’m glad I don’t share those beliefs.
Super, more power to you. If you find that your life is still worth living I won’t try to convince you otherwise. I don’t think that there is anyone in the pro-euthanasia movement who is in favor of involuntary euthanasia, or at least not since 1945. We just ask that you allow the same luxury to others who don’t feel the same way you do.
Q: Is it possible to create life in a laboratory?
A: That depends on who you’re there with.
Tell it! Say it loud, and say it proud. This is a wonderful world in a lot of ways, but some of its facets are messed up beyond any degree of sanity. Childbed fever, and the high rate of women’s death from childbirth before the era of antisepsis, is really high on that list. Would it ha’ killed ye, God, to put in a layer of tissue to prevent post-partum infection, ye daft bastard?
I don’t need the government’s permission to end my life. I can get a gun, I can jump off a high building, I can get a razor blade, I can buy a couple of bottles of Tylenol a wash them down with an alcoholic drink and fry my liver, I can hang myself, I can fall on a sword the old fashion way. I can put a hose from my car exhaust into the window. Some of these ways are painful, but most not for long. And if my goal is to escape months of pain, it seems a fair trade. Now its possible that some sudden injury can hit you making it impossible to carry out these actions, but most people know what’s coming. People with AD, people with cancer, people with diseases like ALS will always have a window of opportunity. Most either wait too long or don’t really want to die, which is their choice. But I don’t need some permission slip from my Dr.
Assuming this is accurate; does “waiting too long” negate a right to suicide?
I can think of a few situations where you might need that “permission slip”, or equivalent - if nothing else, what if there’s something you want to be alive for that happens to pass after you’re already unable to do the deed yourself? Or, likewise, you had a reason to continue living that is negated after that point of no personal ability?
I do not oppose euthanasia. I just don’t feel I need the governments permission. Are there circumstances that might make it impossible to off yourself? Other than a massive stroke or accident I can’t think of anything that doesn’t give you that window of opportunity. So most people are going to have that choice . The day I find out I have terminal cancer, ALS, AD or anything like them, I get my affairs in order and take the early train out. There will always be something you want to put it off for, kids wedding , birth of baby, next Star Wars movie. Robin Williams did his family a favor, whether they know it or not. The few more good memories they might have got by his living longer, would no way balance out the pain and anguish they would have gone through watching him suffer. IMO. And it not like you have a whole lot of nice, then all bad. Its a gradual process in many cases, so you don’t know when is a good time. Like the frog in a boiling pan of water. (I know thats not real). I just think I’d jump out right away, knowing that most frogs wait to long.
You seem to be assuming numbers here, or at least, not providing the numbers you’re privy to. What percentage of people in debilitating, unable-to-commit-suicide-alone conditions get there by way of accident or sudden onsent of something nasty?
Without access to William’s personal and family details, I’m not sure how you can form an opinion on this one. It’s one thing to make a claim about people in general, but entirely another to say that for one specific person they made the right choice.
You’ve got something of an ironic name, then. Vic Sage didn’t take that route.
All of these are not only painful and prone to error resulting in injury and more disability and pain and not death, but also things that severely traumatize other people. Someone has to find your bloated and/or bloody body. Someone has to hose your brain fragments off the sidewalk. Someone has to wash all the blood and vomit out of your carpet and scrub it out of the grout.
I’m not at all opposed to people committing suicide whenever they want. I do think they ought to be considerate of others when choosing how. And medically assisted suicide is by far the least traumatic to bystanders and the environment.
WhyNot: Agreed on both major points: those methods are ugly, both to the person attempting them, and to those who have to deal with the physical and emotional consequences of the tragedy.
It would be nice (I guess) if there were a magical light-switch: turn it off, and that’s the end. If there were a “secret agent” poison pill: crunch it between your teeth, twist in agony for four seconds, and it’s all over.
I’m sure there are methods that meet our requirements (and I don’t want to go into them here.) But the big issue is whether it should be permitted, and there, I’m totally in favor. We should have the right to end our lives.
I’m completely okay with restrictions and regulations. I want to protect people who are severely depressed from making a decision that they would (so to speak) actually regret. I definitely want to protect older people from feeling pressured to end their lives, such as by greedy relatives who’d like the inheritance.
We must have very robust protections. But we also damn well should have the right.