International Herald Tribune, by Jane E. Brody
My Feb. 5 column, “A Heartfelt Appeal for a Graceful Exit,” prompted a deluge of information and requests for information on how people too sick to reap meaningful pleasure from life might be able to control their death.
Many seeking such control are take-charge people who consider quality of life more important than quantity. They do not want their hard-earned money squandered on costly, yet hopeless, treatments. They do not want to keep their bodies alive when their minds have died. They do not want to die under circumstances they consider inhumane, hooked up to all sorts of medical apparatus, unable to control bodily functions or to communicate with loved ones.
The desire to hasten death is not uncommon among the terminally ill. In a 1995 study of 200 such patients, 44 percent occasionally wished for death soon, although only 9 percent expressed “a serious and pervasive wish to die…”
When mentally competent, terminally ill and suffering patients are certain about their desire to hasten death and their families are not opposed, the route often suggested is to stop eating and drinking, both naturally and artificially. There are no legal or moral obstacles to this route, which most often results in a peaceful death within two weeks. It also gives patients an unrushed opportunity to say their goodbyes or to change their minds about dying before it is too late.
Detailed, thoughtful article. There are two organizations referenced: Compassion & Choices and Final Exit Network.
Yeah, some French woman, that looked like a Star Wars alien, wanted to be euthanized, and they didn’t let her…
http://tinyurl.com/3xtrxk
Life’s a bitch.
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I actually didn’t even read the article but I wanted to comment on the picture.
The Seventh Seal is one of my favorite movies and was shocked to see the screen shot. If you haven’t seen this movie, I would recommend it.
Alright now queue the guy that’ll make this about Bush somehow and the next guy who will defend the administration.
#1 – She was found dead, today.
Starving yourself to death is humane? I don’t think so. 50 years ago you were allowed to hook yourself up to an intervenous “Brompton Cocktail” which was a mixture of morphine and some whiskey of choice.
I like that “volunteer suicide booth” in some movie with Edward G Robinson. You go out looking at beautiful pictures.
On my death bed, I’d like to try a sample of all the illegal drugs I have denied myself over the years. An orgasm 100 times greater than I have ever had? Sounds worth checking out to me.
Yeah, I said Star Wars alien…
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I like that “volunteer suicide booth” in some movie with Edward G Robinson. You go out looking at beautiful pictures.
Soylent Green, which, ironically, was EGR’s last picture before he died.
J/P=?
Can I euthanize all the people who piss me off? How about all these Baby Boomers that are going to cost us a lot of money can we euthanize them. Can I be euthanized because paying off this house is too much pain and will take forever. To help recycle and safe the planet. We’ll make Soylent Green and feed the poor.
The problem is who will decide and why is it made. Where will the line be drawn and then moved.
Seventh Seal. The 80’s remake really sucked (if that was a remake) I was wondering about the picture.
As for the getting the state behind such things…thats always been connected to some of our darkest chapters.
The state should definately stay out of it.
(Soylent Green is People!)
Starvation and dehydration are most emphatically NOT “peaceful” deaths. You’re being lied to.
While still mentally competent, the person should sign a Do Not Resuscitate form (in New Mexico, I think a
..I think my keyboard just had a serious hiccup. I think a DNR has to be signed by a witness.
Long before the end, the person should make arrangements to be taken to a hospice at the proper time, where they give you enough drugs that you’re not in pain, and you slip away gracefully. My in-laws arranged this for themselves when it was obvious that they weren’t long for this world (they died three weeks apart of different causes, in case someone here thinks there was a suicide pact or something).
I’ve had type 1 diabetes for the last 20 years. It has caused me to take my health much more seriously. I may even be in better health than I’d otherwise be.
However, it is nice to know I’ve got my way out. I just have to take enough insulin to ensure that I do not to do a Sunny von Bülow impersonation.
Seriously though, anyone who has ever explained to their children that they had to put the dog to sleep because s/he was suffering was either lying like a rug or loved the dog more than grandma.
We treat our pets better than our human loved ones on this score. Pretty pathetic.