Family Euthanasia

[Fenris]

From the Guardian, a few days ago:

One of Britain's most respected conductors, Sir Edward Downes, and his wife, Joan, a choreographer and TV producer, have died at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland, their family said today...

The statement from the couple's son and daughter, Caractacus and Boudicca, said they "died peacefully, and under circumstances of their own choosing".

The statement continued: "After 54 happy years together, they decided to end their own lives rather than continue to struggle with serious health problems."

Joan Downes was terminally ill. Sir Edward suffered from encroaching blindness and deafness.


Euthanasia for the terminally ill is a hard question: euthanasia for the handicapped, or for surviving family members, is an entirely different one.


Last December, the Crown Prosecution Service announced it would take no action against the family of 23-year-old Daniel James, who travelled to Switzerland to die after being paralysed from the chest down in a rugby accident.

The police did not investigate the deaths earlier this year of Peter and Penelope Duff, who became the first terminally ill British couple to be helped to die together in Switzerland.

I'm not so much interested in the legal issue, which is clunky and awkward- if family members are seriously convinced that their loved one is better off dead, then legal action isn't going to be much of a deterrent to them.

But it struck me that Downes' children went with him to Switzerland in support of his decision. If your loved one wants to kill himself, should you be supportive of that? Or should you fight to keep them alive, even if they don't want to be?

õ
And which would you want for yourself?

[Diablito]

I think its selfish to force someone to stay alive and suffer if they where in immense physical or psychological pain. If my loved one wanted to be euthanized, I'd obviously be heartbroken, but I think I would be compliant and understanding. If I wanted to be euthanized, I would hope nothing would try and stop me.

[vcassel]

speaking strictly for my self...i don't believe in an afterlife. i think that when anyone dies they die body and mind and nothing is left. myself, i'd rather experience all encompassing pain and suffering than having my life experience distinguished.

excuse the personal angle but i was put in a situation like this. my father had parkinson's for about a decade. in his last few years i took care of him. one day when i came back from the market he was collapsed on the floor suffocating on his own spittle. the doctors said he was unlikely to make it through and if so he would be brain damaged. my sister, being his biological offspring and thus the one to make the decision, agreed with the doctors to pull the plug. i was very very disappointed. first of all she hardly had a relationship with him and couldn't have known what he may have wanted in that situation. second of all it seemed like they just wanted to get rid of him, that in his state he would have become a nuisance. i'd like to think that even badly brain damaged and one might still be able to enjoy some of life. even experiencing pain is better than not being able to experience anything at all to me. to me it seems simple: life > death.

[StoneGold]

I thought this was going to be about Chris Benoit for some reason.

[Minkie]

One of my sisters, after being bed-ridden for years, in constant pain, experiencing progressive loss of sight and hearing, and kidney failure, and enduring amputation of both legs-- most of this due to complications from diabetes--chose to terminate the artificial prolongation of her life by refusing further dialysis treatments.

She was able to leave the care facility and come home to die with her family around her. In her last days she ate and enjoyed foods that had been denied her due to her illness. She laughed and joked. She finally went into a coma after about ten days at home and died shortly after, in the arms of her son, who put his ear to her body and heard her final heartbeats.

I think the quality of her life in those last ten days was greater than the totality of anything that could have happened had she lived ten more years. She was fully supported by all of her family, most of them conservative Southern Protestant Christians.

And here's an odd thing. I know most of them would not have supported any "active suicide", by any direct means. Somehow she was letting "nature take its course" in their minds, even though she specifically took actions that she knew would end her life.

She was a courageous and gutsy woman all her life, a teacher, principal, and county school administrator. I was proud of the way she took control of her own destiny at the end. I like to think I would have felt the same if she had chosen a lethal injection. But I know it would have seemed different, more difficult for me.

But I think that's just my own cultural conditioning speaking. I definitely believe in the freedom of the individual to choose their own destiny to the extent that one is able to do so. So I would have supported any choice she had made, no matter how I "felt" about it.

[The Black Guardian]

I believe in a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Death is a part of life. Ergot, a person has the liberty to pursue the happiness of death, assuming they are of sound mind.

[dupont2005]

Originally Posted by The Black Guardian

I believe in a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Death is a part of life. Ergot, a person has the liberty to pursue the happiness of death, assuming they are of sound mind.

i agree but i can't imagine being all that supportive if my mother chose to do this.

[rick]

My dad blew his fucking head off while my mom was sitting in the next room and then after the police left I got the "pleasure" of cleaning up the mess and picking up the little pieces of skull.

So I might not be the right person to ask.

[StoneGold]

Originally Posted by rick

My dad blew his fucking head off while my mom was sitting in the next room and then after the police left I got the "pleasure" of cleaning up the mess and picking up the little pieces of skull.

So I might not be the right person to ask.

See, more Chris Benoit.

[rick]

Originally Posted by StoneGold

See, more Chris Benoit.

Dad didn't own a Nautilus so I guess the rest of us lucked out.

[Asmith]

Originally Posted by Fenris

Euthanasia for the terminally ill is a hard question: euthanasia for the handicapped, or for surviving family members, is an entirely different one.

But it struck me that Downes' children went with him to Switzerland in support of his decision. If your loved one wants to kill himself, should you be supportive of that? Or should you fight to keep them alive, even if they don't want to be?

And which would you want for yourself?

I was recently diagnosed with a terminal illness (ALS, Motor Nueron Disease), the later stages of which can be quite unpleasant sometimes. The question of whether I want to live through those last days, and the horrible burden that would place on my family and loved ones has been something I've been pondering deeply for awhile now.

I haven't decided one way or the other, as yet. Mostly since the decision will be based so much on what the situation turns out to actually be. But one thing I am certain of is that if I choose to speed the inevitable along I believe it is my personal right to do so and I would expect the love and support in doing so by those close to me.

I don't want to die. But there are ways I don't want to live as well.

[Pokerlover]

I know of one whose father was in a coma for a bit long... My friend have seen the hardship that his father is experiencing like when his father was being suctioned, she can see the tears flowing from her father's eyes.. But despite that, they never lost hope and instead stayed beside their father day and night... It just so happen that their father still died afterwards.. What I'm saying is that euthanasia may be a solution to one's hardship but if you believe that there is still hope, you should not force yourself to do so..

[Paradox]

If I get something terminal like cancer, I'm exiting stage left. I have no desire to continue a life with enormous debt on awful chemotherapy just to get a couple more years. I don't fear death in the least, regardless of an after-life or not. I fully support the rights of terminal folks to stay or go at their choice.

[Rabid Trekkie]

For myself, I'm against it. Suicide just isn't ever an option. I've already told my family that if something terrible was to happen, all the tubes stay in place and a resusitate order stapled to my forehead so no one could miss it. I don't think I could stand by my loved ones if they chose to do it either.

[Winslow]

I really need to make a "living will."

Both my wife and I prefer to have any artificial means of keeping us alive removed. I know some family members would disagree with that, so I need to make it legal and clear.