This is not a question, it is a call to action. Having spent my entire life taking care of physically and mentally ill adults who openly and frequently admit they want to die (even when I was a child), I would choose death immediately if physician-assisted suicide were available in my country. The very sick and highly-dependent elderly are, for the most part, kept alive at great physical, emotional, and obviously financial cost to most of us merely for profit by pharmaceutical companies and institutions. Massive industries profit from pain and suffering with little incentive to permanently resolve any type of dependency, whether drugs or services. "Oh dear, what about my religious beliefs?" Apparently it is a sin to help people die: you are robbing your God of the vicious entertainment of watching the sick slowly disintegrate as mindless zombies or suffer for years in excruciating pain until their bodies give out. The concept of a judgmental God is a lie. Organized religion only exists as a means of control. WAKE UP AND TAKE YOUR LIVES BACK -- or end them. This is pointless. "What about my children?" Congratulations for forcing more life into this endless exploitative circle jerk. I hope your kids enjoy being stuck in a cycle of desperation as wage slaves OR as exploitative business leaders OR as masters of paper pushing and hopelessly competing with the Joneses even if they won't admit it. All life is pointless. This is pointless. Choke on those dirty adult diapers, diehards! A walk in a pretty park or a funny joke or cute puppy does not make up for the endlessly excruciating day-to-day nightmare of human society.
The people who think it will be disastrous may be interested to hear what’s happened here since the law was changed. Virtually nothing. The rules are very strict, and are followed without all the publicity that we had before (old men flying to Switzerland with their families, murder/suicides after finding the requested drugs on-line, religious views pushed in parliament etc). No doctors are forced to participate if they object personally. No religious funerals have been refused. No bodies buried in un-consecrated ground. No protests in the streets. Just people making their own choices about their own deaths, which usually take place very peacefully with loving family members present, the way they want it.
I do have an issue with someone saying WE SHOULD do this, regardless of the wishes of the patient. Only the patient should have the right to decide this, no one else, and if they had directed this in some health directive I am fine with that. Even then many people would not be OK with that, I am. But only if THEY the PATIENT wanted this.
…But yesterday, he had a seizure. Turned out he had a stroke, again, some days prior. There is now a heart issue to figure out.
Regardless of what he once said, he is going to try to stay alive as long as his wife remains. And even though mil told me she would not pursue advanced treatment if her cancer does come back, I suspect she will as long as he is here.
If, however, one is incapacitated and the other one has dementia, then so and his brother make the decisions. They just don’t know what they are.
I had a doctor and NP at the SNF tell me how they see it daily - family members who never visit their loved one, but absolutely FREAK OUT when Grandma takes a turn for the worse after having been there for months or years. Then the family wants the doctor to "Do everything possible! Feeding tubes, dialysis, etc. so that Grandma won't die before Johnny can get here in a few weeks to say goodbye."
How many times have I seen posts here about family members who are in denial and in reality, THEY just are not ready to be sad, therefore the elderly loved one has to suffer longer! I've seen people demand their elderly loved one take chemo! Good grief. Chemo is horrible for someone young and healthy.
It is often HARD on the patient and family members to get an elderly person to their doctor appointments and so many times they have to go every single day! I was shuttling a relative to so many appointments that I deemed unnecessary - they would just take her vitals and ask how she was feeling and tell her to come back in a few weeks. She was in a wheelchair with oxygen. There was a giant tank and long hose. She was also wearing depends and was horrified that she would leak or smell while she was out and about.
Palliative care needs to be promoted more and needs to be made into a wonderful alternative.
I'm in my 50's. I'm having more and more conversations with people my age and younger who feel like I do. Our generation does NOT WANT to end up in a SNF just waiting to die and I totally get the euthanasia thing. While I would never want to take my life, I think just letting nature take course at a certain point in old age is a good thing.
This episode was called Death Wish; Relentless. Season 56, Episode 26.
Try to find it if you are interested. It was very thought provoking.
While part of what you say may have a point, the bitterness you express negates all the parts that MAY be valid.
And if you think my life is pointless, or ANY life for that matter, YOU yourself have missed the point.
Have a nice day and have a nice life, if such a thing is possible.
Examining one of the best and most beautiful places to live in Canada, Vancouver Island which showed increase in MAID, 7.5% compare to national average of 2.5%
Temper
I expect assisted suicide to become more available while Medicare restricts more treatments. You won’t get your second knee replacement followed by your triple bypass followed by a solid organ removal and then four stroke operations. You may, at best, get one of those things.
Assisted suicide will eventually become encompassed in hospice as an option.