How to die

[Purron]

What do you think about assisted suicide? Would you consider it for yourself or support a loved one pursuing this option?

YouTube - "How to Die in Oregon" HBO promo - Premieres May 26th at 8PM

 

[Khan]

Oregon's law doesn't cover me. Degeneration is not terminal.

 

[Purron]

Oregon's law doesn't cover me. Degeneration is not terminal.

Me neither. But I've thought about how I could end my life without doctors or legal approval if I ended up in a hopeless situation.

 

[REWahoo]

Me neither. But I've thought about how I could end my life without doctors or legal approval.

That would truly be cat-astrophic.

 

[travelover]

I'd rather do it than die a protracted, painful death. I don't think my DW could ever bring herself to assist.

 

[Meadbh]

Purron, this is such an important question. Suicide is legal here, but helping someone to execute it is illegal and can result in prosecution. In the right circumstances I would certainly plan it for myself. But I could not ask anyone to get into legal trouble on my behalf. If I had a painful or degrading terminal condition I would investigate going to the Netherlands where euthanasia is legal.

 

[grumpy]

I have been a member and contributor for many years to the organization now named "Compassion and Choices". It used to be known as "The Hemlock Society". It lobbies for end of life choice legislation , provides end of life counseling and advice to members.

I have always believed in an individual's right to decide whether or when to end his/her own life. I fully understand the objections to assisted suicide but I believe that doctors should be permitted to alleviate suffering even if those actions hasten death if that is the patient's wish.

To me Dr. Kevorkian is a hero.

 

[Major Tom]

To me Dr. Kevorkian is a hero.

He even has his own CD, titled "A Very Still Life":

Amazon.com: Kevorkian Suite: Very Still Life: Jack Kevorkian: Music

 

[Purron]

I have been a member and contributor for many years to the organization now named "Compassion and Choices". It used to be known as "The Hemlock Society". It lobbies for end of life choice legislation , provides end of life counseling and advice to members.

I have always believed in an individual's right to decide whether or when to end his/her own life. I fully understand the objections to assisted suicide but I believe that doctors should be permitted to alleviate suffering even if those actions hasten death if that is the patient's wish.

To me Dr. Kevorkian is a hero.

Thank you for sharing this Grumpy. I've seen people I love linger and suffer for years.

 

[GregLee]

I have been a member and contributor for many years to the organization now named "Compassion and Choices". It used to be known as "The Hemlock Society".

Thanks for the reference. When the time comes, I'd rather not involve anyone else -- I'm thinking some pills that put me to sleep and then cause me to die without waking. That would be best. I don't think I'll need them for 10-15 years, but I hope I can find some to stockpile in the next decade or so.

 

[Moemg]

I could never hasten a loved ones life but I would step in and stop over the top medical intervention and I hope someone would do the same for me .

 

[Khan]

I have been a member and contributor for many years to the organization now named "Compassion and Choices". It used to be known as "The Hemlock Society". It lobbies for end of life choice legislation , provides end of life counseling and advice to members.

I have always believed in an individual's right to decide whether or when to end his/her own life. I fully understand the objections to assisted suicide but I believe that doctors should be permitted to alleviate suffering even if those actions hasten death if that is the patient's wish.

To me Dr. Kevorkian is a hero.

Crap yes.

 

[Brat]

Most do not realize that there is lots of process in Oregon's assisted suicide law. One is that based on current medical knowledge you have less than 6 months to live and your physician must confirm that and the fact that you are mentally competent. Then you must meet with another physician and yet a different mental health practitioner. Only after that can you be dispensed medications that will do the job... and you must take them yourself, no one can administer them.

As some can confirm a pistol is quicker & cheaper.

 

[grumpy]

Its one thing to plan on having pills available for self administration but the real crunch comes when an individual, who has previously expressed the specific intention to end his/her life rather than suffer through a terminal condition suddenly declines to the point where he is incapacitated before he can carry out the act. Then our current laws deny his doctor or his loved ones the right to assist.

 

[GregLee]

Then our current laws deny his doctor or his loved ones the right to assist.

As the laws should. In what sense could anyone "assist", when the patient cannot be known to have decided? At best, they can formulate a theory that if he were competent, he would decide to end his life. Necessarily tenuous.

 

[Silver]

Hospice is a nursing specialty that is very professional and private about their services, but their level of expertise related to end-of-life issues is superior to any other care provider currently available, in my opinion.

No hospice nurse will ever say that they assist with suicide. That's not what they do. But, as professionals, they may provide interventions that allow for a peaceful death with dignity. They work very closely with the family and the patient and other health care providers that are involved, and depending on the situation, can gracefully assist with an end to suffering.

 

[devans0]

Having experienced Hospice with my mother passing away, I second Hospice as greatly superior in care, assistance to loved ones remaining, and without the legal problems that will come from assisted suicide, nor the emotional aftermath of a suicide.

 

[obgyn65]

I agree with this. Hospice care is far better than what it used to be.

Having experienced Hospice with my mother passing away, I second Hospice as greatly superior in care, assistance to loved ones remaining, and without the legal problems that will come from assisted suicide, nor the emotional aftermath of a suicide.

 

[Nords]

Its one thing to plan on having pills available for self administration but the real crunch comes when an individual, who has previously expressed the specific intention to end his/her life rather than suffer through a terminal condition suddenly declines to the point where he is incapacitated before he can carry out the act. Then our current laws deny his doctor or his loved ones the right to assist.

But the prosecutor would claim that the controlling, abusive spouse coerced the other one into dying against their will.

I watched my mother, a registered nurse, quietly make herself die when her metastasized breast cancer spread to her bones and started breaking them. She got home from the hospital, crawled into bed, stopped eating, and then stopped drinking. It was an extraordinary act of pain tolerance & endurance, although during her final year at home she was never more than six feet from one of many Demerol stashes. I suspect that I have the same temperament to pull off something like that. However I also wonder if I'll always be curious about one more sunrise, one more surfing session, one more ice cream cone...

My spouse plans to collect Percocet and Bailey's Irish Cream.

 

[donheff]

My spouse plans to collect Percocet and Bailey's Irish Cream.

Me too but I wish doctors were free to prescribe guaranteed effective, painless solutions. The vet can give a dog a simple shot but we have to hoard pills and go out slowly (with a plastic bag over our heads to assure success)? Awful.

 

[eytonxav]

Before Kevorkian, assisted suicide to me was S&W. I'm in Grumps camp on this one.

 

[grumpy]

As the laws should. In what sense could anyone "assist", when the patient cannot be known to have decided? At best, they can formulate a theory that if he were competent, he would decide to end his life. Necessarily tenuous.

Greg, you didn't quote what I stipulated earlier in my post:"when an individual, who has previously expressed the specific intention to end his/her life rather than suffer through a terminal condition".

If I were to leave specific instructions to my doctor and loved ones, then I do not see why the state has any interest in the outcome.

 

[grumpy]

Me too but I wish doctors were free to prescribe guaranteed effective, painless solutions. The vet can give a dog a simple shot but we have to hoard pills and go out slowly (with a plastic bag over our heads to assure success)? Awful.

Donheff, I couldn't agree with you more.

 

[Bestwifeever]

...She got home from the hospital, crawled into bed, stopped eating, and then stopped drinking. ....

A friend's father did that and apparently that is not a physically traumatic way to die (and that is the peaceful, died-in-their-sleep death that nature initiates for the lucky ones). I know God will get me for this, but when I think of assisted suicide I have to say I wonder why people don't just decide to follow Nords's mother's path rather than involve anyone else when they feel it is their time to go. A horrific accident or debilitating illness of course might put the power and responsibility to feed/hydrate yourself in others' hands, so along with the question of assisted suicide, there's that consideration, too--how much emergency treatment would an otherwise healthy person want?

 

[rescueme]

My hope is to die in the arms of a beautiful woman, having the opportunity to come and go at the same time ...