The Right to Die

[GhostTown11]

How do you feel about cases of assisted suicide involving adults who, for some reason or another, feel that suicide would be their best option and them receiving assistance to carry it out? To clarify, this could be anyone in the general populace, not only those who have a terminal illness.

[Devlyn]

Nurses end peoples lives quietly every day. The only time it comes to the forefront is when an attention seeker runs to the media. Then everyone has to play by the rules, and asisted suicide is still illegal. Hugs, Devlyn

[Adam (birkin)]

My only concern with it is that some people may take the lives of those they consider to be in a state "not worth living in."

For example, a professor is my department used to be severely disabled. She often could not breathe, eat, move, or do much of anything on her own. And oftentimes, nurses and doctors would ask her if she wanted to be alive, and sometimes she would wonder the same thing herself.

There seemed to be no hope. But she is better now, and she know she values her life now and valued her life then, even when she seemed to have no dignity in the eyes of others. What if a doctor or nurse decided to give her a "kindness" and kill her? She was completely vulnerable, and no one would have questioned someone "pulling the plug." Put bluntly, she'd have been murdered because her life wasn't considered worth living by others.

That said, I do know some people who truly do want to end their lives because of suffering. I'm not dismissing that, I'm just bringing up a very real possibility.

[Jamie D]

The issue is complicated and involves the quality of life, quantity of life, and sanctity of life.

[Ms. OBrien CVT]

Assisted suicide is legal in Oregon, with a doctor's approval.

[GhostTown11]

Assisted suicide is legal in Oregon, with a doctor's approval.

I know. I was watching the HBO Real Doc "How to Die in Oregon" and it was very sad but ...not so sad at the same time.

@Jamie...I don't think there is an inherent sanctity to life. We just ascribe our hopes and fears on to broad themes and natural occurrences in life and hope they stick.

@PapaTaco (shudders) I doubt something like that would happen. In this case no one would be able to vouch for someone else and pull the plug. Only people who were in a reasonable state of mind for themselves could "qualify".

@Devlyn yeah that is precisely why I dont want to work bedside when I become an RN. In an ER setting there is less attachment and more focus on the job so having to ''pull the plug'' wouldnt even be a factor.

[Dawn Heart]

Earlier in this thread there were concerns about RN's or other medical personnel taking someone's life without going through proper steps. I have been a long time advocate for dying with dignity and the right to die.

Based on personal research that goes into my own choice, I am familiar with the way this goes. They first have to assess the mental ability of the person making such a wish and a declaration. They asses emotional state, patient understanding, the patient's long term prognosis and the possibility of dying in great suffering. Then there are forms to sign, again and again. At the final meeting when death takes place, the patient can bring a couple or three people close to him/her. The staff do a final assessment from all angles once again. The staff explains the procedure and all possible negative outcomes as well as the wanted and expected outcome.

The staff has the patient sign the forms again at their own will, without any pressure applied. The whole process MUST be the sole, willful, wish of the patient.

The staff member mixes the barbituate and a sedative ahead of time if the patient wants it. There are chocolates available due to the taste of the barbituate. Death takes only a few minutes...around 8 to 14 minutes from start to finish.

There are youtube videos on the subject that I will not link to, but you may feel free to browse on your own accord. Two stories stick out in my mind. One is that of Peter Smedley, and the other is a lesbian writer who had a bone problem that would have meant sheer misery for her later on in life. I wish I could remember her name.

She was such a brave woman and went out peacefully, with grace.

We all deserve to have options available to us instead of the only option being hospice and going through a laborious death that can bring a person through several bouts with physical shut down that runs in stages, some of which are painful and uncomfortable. Drugs for comfort care can only do so much to keep a dying person from suffering.

I know for myself that when my time comes, I want to peacefully drift off to sleep and leave in peace. I want it to be dignified, graceful, painless, and without loss of my personal image as the person I am. I want my life to matter, but also want my death to matter to those who knew me.         

[Miharu Barbie]

As a woman who helped facilitate her previous partner's suicide at the end of a 30 month tongue cancer ordeal (a suicide that was not formally sanctioned or assisted by the attending physicians, but was unofficially attended by the hospice nurse) I feel drawn to this conversation.  On the other hand, I believe that this question is so much bigger than most people can even begin to imagine, that I feel repelled by it.

As I see it, based on the ->-bleeped-<- storm that I faced after helping my partner kill herself, what you're suggesting, Adam, would require nothing short of a cultural shift 100 times bigger and more complex than the shift in consciousness that has taken place over the past 40 years or so that has brought about a measure of acceptance for the GLBT community (such as it is.) 

How do I feel about this subject personally?  I believe that all life is meaningful, regardless of how it looks to those who may be observing it, or even how we feel about it as we live it.  Life in all of it's manifestations contributes to the growth and evolution of all that is.  (Another huge subject.)  I believe that ending life prematurely is a mistake of the highest order.  And I totally acknowledge that there's no way in the Universe for me or anyone else to concretely quantify that perspective.  All I can say is that it's true for me.  I told my partner that exact thing before she took her life, and in spite of how I feel about this subject, I helped her anyway... because I loved her with my whole heart.  I would do it again.

Even with laws in place for physician assisted suicide (as we have here in Oregon), the ramifications of shattered families, the issue of post traumatic stress for those involved who remain living, and the justifications required for letter-of-the-law questions that most definitely arise from case to case (with the very real risk of long term prison sentences hanging in the balance for all involved), are all very real potential consequences that won't go away. 

In a nut shell.... there are no easy answers to this question, and there almost certainly will not be in our lifetime, or even our children's' lifetimes.

Peace,
Miharu