Not many folks know this, but I’m very passionate about a person’s Right to Die. It’s something I’ve had to think about seriously in the last few years because I have a disease I could die from; and not very pleasantly. I have Lupus Erythmatosus which is the body’s own immune system attacking the major organs as though they are foreign bodies. I watched, for three days, as my own father, who never wanted to be hooked up to tubes and respirators, die the way he didn’t want to go. I don’t want that. I also don’t want a lingering hospital death that will wind up leaving my husband with outrageous bills.
In a few days I’ll be getting my Living Will Kit that includes a DNR – Do Not Resucitate – order. This detailed form has a person list under what conditions resucitation is to be allowed and under which conditions it isn’t. My conditions are simple, if I die, no resucitation. Even if they could bring me back and I’d be given a few more years, I don’t want it. What I’m saying is, if my body decides to go, let it.
This still doesn’t guaruntee my Right to Die, though. Why? Because there are so many loopholes and lawyers attached to that DNR. If you do not think of every little contingency, which often requires the aid of a lawyer versed in medical legalese, you can still wind up with a batch of tubes running through your body as your bank account dwindles away to nothing.
Do you remember the movie “Soylent Green”? I loved that movie for two reasons; it was Edward G. Robinson’s last role, and it had the most beautiful death scene I’d ever seen on the movie screen. In Soylent Green, in that film’s time period, with the explosive population, Death Centers had been created. Any person, young or old, in good health or ill, could decide on their own to walk into the Death Center, choose their death, their funeral, and they could die without having to worry that the law would come down on relatives.
Of course, the movie had a sinister twist behind these death centers (“Soylent green is people!”), but such a place has an obvious draw, for me.
I realize that it would be irresponsible to have something like that in our present. But that freedom is what I feel we deserve. Do I think everyone should be allowed to die when they wish? They should, but there should also be a system of checks and balances in place. Such as in my case: I have suicidal thoughts along with my depression. If I’d had the Right to Die when I was a teenager, I wouldn’t be writing this. In the case of someone who is depressed, before they’re allowed to die, they should be given alternative choices, counseling, etc. If, in spite of all such help, a person still wishes to die, then support them and let them do so. Counseling has helped me, but not cured me. Then, to have Lupus on top of my depression, it makes the struggle to maintain happiness and quality of life tough.
I do want to live as long as I can. I want to be as healthy as possible and still be able to greet the day with a smile. But should there come a day when my quality of life isn’t what I desire it to be, then I don’t want the government telling me I have to just grin and bear it, pay the bills and lose my home. If my body decides that it is time to go, I don’t want doctors shoving painful IVs into my veins, breathing tubes up my nose and down my throat. Let me go home, where there is the comfort of my husband, my dogs and my cats. If I’m in pain, give me morphine. It’s my body and no government has a right to tell me when I can die.
What are your thoughts about the Right to Die?
I also work in C/S Cindy. I want to throttle pretty much most people myself :)
In regard to Soylent Green, I concur. The whole concept of the right to die is one which raises more than a few eyebrows but a concept that is done so beautifully.
Definately one of my all time favourites.
How bout my right to throttle the living hell outve people that’re clearly too stupid to live?
Can you tell I work in customer service?
My grandmother before she died had reached a stage where quite frankly she wasn’t with us, it was a shell. She had had more than one minor stroke, had broken wrists doing something as simple as getting out of bed, and had finally reached a point where she wasn’t living… she was waiting to die. She wasn’t always compos mentis, but she did surface occasionally, and on those occasions she was very clear both to her family and her doctors that she did not want to be hooked up to any machinery. It was a hard decision for all of the family, but at the end of the day it was her choice. One that was respected and her children signed the medical forms required to state that she should not be resuscitated should the worst happen.
Something like that is difficult and is often made harder by the fact that no-one really thinks about it before its too late. By then the individual concerned may not be sufficiently mentally capable for the law to accept their decision. It is one I believe people should be allowed to make though under the appropriate circumstances.