# You Have a Incurable, Progressive, Terminal Disease. It Hurts. What If.... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 9, 2013, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-a-incurable-progressive-terminal-disease-it-hurts-what-if/655199 "2013-04-09T02:35:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Doggo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/87869e/32.png) [@Doggo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doggo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-a-incurable-progressive-terminal-disease-it-hurts-what-if/655199/61 "2013-04-12T06:55:15Z")
If I do not die soon, I’m going to have DNR tattooed on my forehead. No way I’m letting Drs have their way with me. To answer the question, I hope sanity has occured by the time it becomes necessary for me to kick off, and assisted suicide is legal. Otherwise, there’s always the kabuki. ---
**Author:** ![Doggo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/87869e/32.png) [@Doggo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doggo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-a-incurable-progressive-terminal-disease-it-hurts-what-if/655199/62 "2013-04-12T06:58:42Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > Aside form snarky comments from ingrates: > > The advantage to helium in a bag over your head is that, should the apparatus be removed before anyone not in on the operation arrives, there is no way to determine cause of death - it leaves no traces, and unless the bag was secured with something around the neck which left a bruise, all an investigator is presented is a body sitting in a chair. An autopsy would actually destroy any slight trace which didn’t already find its way out. > > Beats the hell out of car exhaust which is hot and caustic. If you chose that, make sure you are going to stay asleep - that pesky will-to-live is likely to try to awake you so you can “save” yourself. If going down the car route, make sure it doesn’t have a catalytic converter, as apparently that removes the necessary component. Not that I know from personal experience. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-a-incurable-progressive-terminal-disease-it-hurts-what-if/655199/63 "2013-04-12T07:49:32Z")
> [@Doggo](#): > > If I do not die soon, I’m going to have DNR tattooed on my forehead. > No way I’m letting Drs have their way with me. I know a guy who does, in fact, have a DNR tattoo. On his chest, right over his heart. In fact, IIRC, his tattoo has the full words “Do Not Resuscitate. Make it fast. Make it painless” there. I’d have left off those last two sentences – they seem to say he does want _some_ kind of treatment when in fact the “DNR” part seems to say, just leave me alone. Kind of a mixed message, I think. > [@sidhechaos](#): > > I forsee in within 10 to 15 years not only an overdose but also playing with the plentiful copperheads to be found in the area and just in case a very sharp knife to slit my jugular with while out in the woods. The scariest thing to be scared of is the possibility that someday (possibly suddenly) you will become so disabled that you _can’t_ deal with it the way you would wish, and of course nobody else is going to do it for you. You have to deal with it yourself while you still can. How does one decide when it’s time? Or, wait just a day too long and. . . it’s too late. This is the stuff of which Edgar Allan Poe tales are made. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-a-incurable-progressive-terminal-disease-it-hurts-what-if/655199/64 "2013-04-12T08:46:02Z")
I have a bottle of pills. Not enough to kill, but enough I won’t wake up in the middle of something. Everybody who jumps from the Golden Gate Bridge does so from the east site (facing the city) near the south tower. For the jumpers in the group: please be different. BTW: There was a survivor from a bridge jump. Maybe a rider on a Medicare/Medicaid appropriations bill: 1. National DB of Medical Directives, mandated as required treatment (I just saw a write-up from a Cancer Hospice in WA re, its program by which it will write a script for a lethal dose of barbiturates - even in that context, they have MD’s who refuse to write the script - I don’t want my directives to be considered “if you don’t mind”) 2. At a minimum: A list of stops along a continuum - from DNR unless \_\_\_% chance of meaningful recovery within \_\_ years. to 500mg Phenobarbital IV immediately. And people (all ages) get to put their SSN’s beside their option. But yes, if you are nearing the point - for god’s sake, make sure all required bits are within your easy reach. And, damnit, why can’t we get reliable lethal dosages? Of all the people who use pills, some of them have had to have been such neatness freaks to leave dosage notes behind. That entertainer in LV who decided doing impressions wasn’t really the starring role he wanted at least left a list. I have at least some of each mentioned in the paper… ---
**Author:** ![mo50](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@mo50](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mo50)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-a-incurable-progressive-terminal-disease-it-hurts-what-if/655199/65 "2013-04-12T16:23:59Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I would like to think that I would off myself. > > I see no point in spending money that could go to my wife and children trying to postpone the inevitable. If I am going to die, let’s do it quick and cheap - God will understand. > > Write a nice, clear, unambiguous suicide note, and make sure all my affairs are in order. A light meal to keep my stomach settled, then a big whack of pills and as much of a bottle of bourbon as I can get down before I pass out. Then the plastic bag over my head when I start to get dizzy. > > Regards, > Shodan Very well put. Another idea would be what Brad Delp, the singer from the band Boston did, I think he sealed off his bathroom and lit a charcoal grill inside, leaving a note outside cautioning first responders about the c02 danger so no one would get hurt. The only better way to go is my all time favorite : “At age 99, in my my girlfriend’s bed, shot dead by a jealous husband” That might take some planning though! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-a-incurable-progressive-terminal-disease-it-hurts-what-if/655199/66 "2013-04-12T16:32:39Z")
As someone who doesn’t believe in an afterlife, I cannot imagine any form of existence, however painful or meager, that wouldn’t be preferable to not existing at all. If I have to die, it’s not going to be willingly. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-a-incurable-progressive-terminal-disease-it-hurts-what-if/655199/67 "2013-04-12T21:56:03Z")
People talk about helium, but nitrous oxide seems both more available and much more enjoyable. That’s how the editor of CREEM magazine accidentally died. ---
**Author:** ![colander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@colander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colander)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-a-incurable-progressive-terminal-disease-it-hurts-what-if/655199/68 "2013-04-12T22:24:40Z")
heroin overdose. duh. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-a-incurable-progressive-terminal-disease-it-hurts-what-if/655199/69 "2013-04-13T00:44:30Z")
> [@colander](#): > > heroin overdose. duh. If the intent is IV: How about a quick overview of how to reduce a pill to injectable form? Would crushing a pill an either snorting or “plugging”\* the powder be more effective? - - introduce via anal path. Go ahead _ **Die** _ of embarrassment. Syringes AND needle used to be OTC at vet supply - buy a kitten inoculation serum and 6 needles and (short) needles; don’t know if a bag of saline wold get you cleared to buy an IV drip apparatus. ---
**Author:** ![colander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@colander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colander)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-a-incurable-progressive-terminal-disease-it-hurts-what-if/655199/70 "2013-04-13T01:16:47Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > If the intent is IV: > > How about a quick overview of how to reduce a pill to injectable form? > > Would crushing a pill an either snorting or “plugging”\* the powder be more effective? > > - > - introduce via anal path. Go ahead _ **Die** _ of embarrassment. > > Syringes AND needle used to be OTC at vet supply - buy a kitten inoculation serum and 6 needles and (short) needles; don’t know if a bag of saline wold get you cleared to buy an IV drip apparatus. you’re injecting a shitload of heroin into your arm. i don’t know, i figure it’s gotta be pretty hard to get wrong. just look up “how to keep from overdosing” on the internet and then do the exact opposite of whatever it tells you to do ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-a-incurable-progressive-terminal-disease-it-hurts-what-if/655199/71 "2013-04-13T09:26:08Z")
Trouble is: Heroin is relatively difficult to ocome by Opiates (Vicodin, Dilaudid, morphine) are easy…Does one simplly heat the crushed pills to get a liquid for IV, or is the powder mixed with someting. I suppose, given the object, anything which gets the powder into the vein is good. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-a-incurable-progressive-terminal-disease-it-hurts-what-if/655199/72 "2013-04-13T10:31:36Z")
I appear to have just ordered 6 12cc syringes with #25 needles. Various cites have differing restrictions (either a script or “written recommendation”) based on your state. My usual vet supply would require a script because I live in CA; others let CA ride, but nailed NJ. Probably a matter of whatever the programmer thought at the time that particular program was written. NY seems to be a bitch for all of the ones I saw. If you can’t hit a vein, just stab your butt - IM is not as effective as IV, but is ahead of pills. I wonder why the medicos have stayed away from this one - at least a couple have to support the idea… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-a-incurable-progressive-terminal-disease-it-hurts-what-if/655199.md?page=3)