Wednesday - October 10, 2012

suicide as a safety net

Had to come downstairs and boot to email request for meds.
Feeling better than I did yesterday but hory clap as Drew might say.  I read an email from him and realize he’s in worse shape then I am.
Although the eye candy he posted must have had a beneficial affect. Or is that supposed to be effect?  I’ve always had a problem with that.
So although I was certain yesterday I would not have the ability to sit at a puter for more then the time it takes to boot, here I am. Not for too long tho.

SUICIDE AS A SAFETY NET

I’ve been giving suicide a lot of serious thought over the last year. Maybe more. 
Not my own.  No plans to top myself just yet but at my age, one should not ignore the future as we did when younger.

What has brought this about over the last year or so, has been the reports of people who are doing just that. Topping themselves, and not all are old at all.

It’s a depressing subject but not one that can be easily avoided.  Not if you read the papers anyway. They are full of the subject.  For the record, I am in full favor of doctor assisted suicide, and very much resent the idea that it’s either murder, or “killing” as that word is used by opponents.  I also don’t like the idea of religious organizations of any stripe, sticking their moral nose into other people’s personal decisions as how their final exit is made.  If a church wants to speak to its own congregation, I haven’t any problem. But I want no church to lobby govt. as they do, on something so personal.  Even worse is an organization of busy body do gooders, who call themselves “Care Not Killing.” They use that last word in almost the same context as a contract killing by the Mafia.  They think loving care is a substitute for a painless death.  They don’t recognize the idea that sometimes, a life truly is not worth the effort it takes to continue breathing.

I think I need to clarify something here with regard to this subject. I am not talking about someone who isn’t happy with life cos they haven’t won the lottery and decide to end it.  I’m talking about seriously ill people with no real life. In fact, no life as we know it at all.

There have been recent cases of something called Locked In Syndrome.  I don’t know when that term came into use.  There is a medical term for those unfortunate people who’ve had accidents or strokes, and suddenly found themselves locked in a body they can not control. They can only move their eyes or blow into a straw of some kind that’s connected to a computer. But the brain is working and is aware of everything going on.  Everything they have absolutely no control over.  Every detail of their struggle has been explored and mined and explained to the public, and I can not think of anything worse.  And then too there are those in agony suffering a fatal illness who would like to end it peacefully at home among family, if they have any family.
But the moralistic laws decree that a merciful death assisted by someone else is somehow wrong, even when they have made their decision free of any outside influence.  But opponents argue that there wouldn’t be a way to know that for certain.
Even a document left behind could conceivably have been made under duress.  So it almost becomes a no win situation for someone desperately ill, who wants to end it while they are still able to make that decision.

Only a couple of months ago, a young man with his wife’s help, brought a court case requesting that his life end with a doctors assist.  They couldn’t go to Switzerland, to the Dignitas clinic.  Firstly, even if they had the money, he was totally paralysed and his wife could have faced prosecution for helping him.  He cried like a baby when the judge hearing the case refused.  He had no choice under existing laws to allow it.  So he was condemned to a living hell until fortunately, he suddenly died a short time later. 

I think some very sad examples also involve the suicide of the very young for the most incomprehensible reasons.  Young girls for example as young as 14, topping themselves because they were bullied on Facebook or told they were fat. Now that is damn tragic.  Every time I see something like that I wonder why on earth couldn’t they talk to their parents.  Especially their mom. Why? How could bright young kids who are NOT into the drug or gang culture and seemingly doing well at school with their grades, decide at 14 or 15 that they’ve had enough of life?  Why would they listen to some bullying twit at school who insulted them, and then go off and top themselves.  And btw …. some very young males have done the same although it seems to be more numerous among young girls.  And, mostly white in both genders.
We don’t read of many Chinese or Korean kids doing this sort of thing. Or Indian.
Mostly, it’s white kids.  Every time I read about them, I wish there had been some sort of help for them before they went that far.  But they weren’t of a mind to speak to anyone, and that’s a damn shame. 

There are unfortunate people so hopelessly ill, in pain but nothing immediately terminal, people whose existence is so intolerable they want to die.  And they want help to do so before they become too ill to do it themselves. Or be able to articulate that desire.  There is always worry about a botched suicide, which makes doctor assisted death more desirable.

There are a few it has been reported on, who are in a state where they are suffering, there may be years left but who are not willing to wait around loaded up on drugs that often have unwanted side effects while scientists hunt for a cure.  It’s a personal decision they have every right to.  But the law seems more worried about the possibility that sick people will be either forced or influenced by greedy relations, to end their lives.  Thing is, those kind of people will do that anyway, regardless of what laws are in place.  Sometimes life really is unbearable, and who would know better then the unfortunate in that position?  Especially those who are not able to do the deed themselves and need help to end it. Even if the illness is not terminal, it may be enough for a person to want out before it gets any worse.

It’s our body, our life, our right to choose.
Why shouldn’t it be done cleanly and without worry about involving a family member or surviving a botched attempt that could leave one worse off?  And why should total strangers who could not possibly know what another is going through, be in a position to gainsay that request? 

Posted by peiper     on 10/10/2012 at 04:52 PM   
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