Other, more enlightened, countries allow their people the freedom to choose how and when they die. Given the holier than thou religiousness in the US these days, it’s no surprise that us, the world’s shining light of freedom, doesn’t. The Declaration of Independence talks about the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, so shouldn’t there be a similar right to end that life at a time of our choosing should illness make the others impossible? Conservatives, who want government out of our lives, should be for this, right?
Below is an article about the issue in France. Then here is one from China.
‘Every person shall have the right to die with dignity; this right shall include the right to choose the time of one’s death and to receive medical and pharmaceutical assistance to die painlessly. No physician, nurse or pharmacist shall be held criminally or civilly liable for assisting a person in the free exercise of this right.”
Within the next half century, perhaps much sooner, the right to choose to die with dignity will be as widely recognized as the right to free speech or to exercise one’s religion.
It will cease to be called euthanasia or mercy killing. It will not be viewed as killing, but as a fundamental human right as expressed in the imaginary constitutional amendment above.
In Europe, euthanasia is already sanctioned by law in Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland. In the United States, the state of Oregon has also allowed it.
The decision last week by a French criminal court in Périgeux illustrates how social mores precede changes in the law. The facts of the case are simple: A 65-year-old woman suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer was given potassium chloride by a nurse and died shortly after.
At present, the law focuses on the act of the physician or nurse, and not on the rights of the patient. As that focus shifts so that the right of the patient to die with dignity becomes paramount, one can expect to see the law proclaim a fundamental right.
We need to have these laws as soon as possible. The population is retiring, and most of them have health care paid for by pensions or the government. This law would make things so much easier.
#30 – God cannot do this because s/he does not exist.
Comment by Misanthropic Scott — 3/23/2007 @ 6:05 am
And on that point we are in step.
What used to baffle me is why people believe the Bible, knowing that it was written by many authors, none of whom lived in Jesus’s time, and was written over hundreds of years, translated over and over, at the command of kings, each with unique agendas… and knowing that nothing in the Bible today closely resembles any of the original text. The Bible is 100% not credible. It is the greatest book ever written for the purpose of marketing an idea.
I’m not nearly as baffled anymore when I consider how people romanticize the past. Used to be kids had respect… you could leave your doors unlocked… things were built to last… men and women knew their place… or whatever other questionable bullshit they think… coupled with a deep seated need to believe in something, it’s easy to understand why the spell of the Xian mythology is so hard to break.
But break it we must if we are ever to see a future that includes peace, freedom, and happiness.*
*I’m not naive… I just think its better to work towards the impossible than to bitch about it.
#32 – OhForTheLoveOf,
I was about to make a really snarky remark about a line of your post and then realized it was a bit of snark in and of itself. So, before someone else misses this too, I assume that your list of examples of romanticizing the past, which includes “men and women knew their place”, was a list of examples you’ve heard others say, not that you are advocating a sexist society, correct?
#33 – Of course 🙂
…the high and mighty moral “theories” about right-to-life, and quality-of-life don’t mean a damn thing. You’ll never know what you really think, until you are sitting next to a loved one who is suffering, with no more hope than an ice cube sitting in the sun in Death Valley in August.
When each labored breath is more painful and more raspy than the next. When all you can hope for is that there isn’t another convulsion, and puking blood (again). The convulsions are almost worse than the alert, or semi-alert states where they just cry, moan and beg you to end it. I can’t begin tell you how difficult it is to watch them in that much pain.
You pray for each minute that the pain meds keep working, because once the current dose is “tolerated” you will need to deal with unfaltering screaming and more crying, the questions and begging for it to end. What do you say to console your loved one? “Buck up, take it…taking your life would be “murder”. Its morally wrong?
When the morphine is tolerated, it takes forever to get “permission” to up the drip, or up the amount to administer. (It can take HOURS to get the hospice people to get a doctor to approve an increase in the morphine…because of all the red-tape, “need to account for all of the opiates…so there’s no risk of addiction”.) You have to have permission, it’s the rules. (And, believe me, they go over the logs, and check the meds, and act like you’re out selling the drugs on the street if anything is amiss. The threat is there…that “you’d better not take matters into your own hands, or we’ll call the cops”.
When all you can do is WAIT for the life to end….but due to our laws the wait just drags on, and on. You have no choice but to sit and wait, and wait and wait. It’s not quality of life. It’s not even life. It’s this limbo world, where there is nothing to do, nothing to say, nothing to hope for. Even with DNR’s and living wills, and medical power of attorneys….the wait stll exists. Even IF the patient begs to die, even if the family can barely hold it together to watch and wait, even if there is absolutely NO HOPE, no potential “good outcome”. There is nothing you can do, legally.
And, add to that the fact that to die by convulsion or pneumonia is really terrible. To die by choking on your vomit, or by being unable to get a full breath of air…is really terrifying, and horrid to watch. No family member should have to watch that. Especially not the kids…(and many more people are dying “in home now”). Death is not pretty. The “slipping to the other side” is rarely as sweet and quiet as the movies show it. They don’t just take a last gasp and turn aside, and then exhale and it’s over. It’s ugly. It’s blood and vomit, and every other exrement that you can imagine…and with our current medical state…guess what? You get to deal with this ALONE. No doctors, no nurses, no “professionals”.
Support? Sure, you get a hospice nurse three times a week, a coordinator once or twice a week, and the rest of the time no one. Hospitals can’t afford to deal with dying patients (they treat and street, not keep them, the whole point is to turn the rooms to make $$, not sit there and watch someone die).
Employers can’t be bothered with you (if you need to stay and “keep care” of your dying family member). They’d rather fill your position with someone who doesn’t allow personal business to interfere with THEIR business. Hiring someone to sit there, in your place, costs hundreds of dollars a week (not to mention the worries about “if they’re doing their job”). Insurance does not cover it. It’s “out of pocket”.
Our society gives no support to dying people, or the families that must deal with them. Grief is something we push under the carpet “get over it”. In fact, no one wants to hear about death or dying.
In days past, a doctor could just quietly give a bit more morphine than needed, and let the last moments be serene. No one would check, no one would scrutinize the drug records, no one would fear being hauled in on “murder” charges. If anything, we are slipping further back into the dark ages.
We allow all kinds of intervention to bring life into this world, but disallow any intervention to assist life leaving it. In fact, we threaten prosecution to anyone who makes a decision.
Until you are sitting there watching a loved one die…you can’t have a real opinion on this. I’ve been through it twice now…and I favor allowing families to make the decisions that work best for them.
meetsy,
I’m very sorry you had to go through this. You have my deepest sympathy. I had a grandmother die less violently in the hospital and a friend die of AIDS in 1990. There are definitely fates worse than death. Why we do to our loved ones what we wouldn’t do to our pets is beyond me. Of course, please don’t take this to suggest that we should not do this for our loving pets, merely that we should treat our family and friends as well.
29,
Apples and oranges. A baby can communicate its desires very easily. If that poor woman was able to communicate hers, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.