Many people feel while able bodied that "If I were like that, just shoot me" etc.
Unfortunately is it this exact fear (which is an unknowning fear, since it is like a Unbelievable Weathly person looking at a peasant shephard and deciding that someone "in such a state" must be one of perpetual agony and would rather die. While for a shephard, it is just....life. This fear of pain, disease and disability is why parents will often kill off children and get away with it; or in cases I know of, children waiting for inheritances kill off parents. As many point out, doctors often simply phone in the morphine drip, which will put the older person into a coma over a few days (whether they would die naturally or not) and away they a few days/week after that. It is true that death can and does linger. But just because you are scared of it doesn't mean you get to die - that's why we don't allow people to kill themselves (or thier children) instead of having to go to the dentist.
I find it particularly ironic that the case mentioned was a woman who was dying of a MND (a degenerative motor neuron disease) as I am dying of a degenrative motor neuron disease. And sure, when I first started getting ill, when I got my chair it was all, "Once I get to this point, let me die with dignity."
But then, I GREW UP. Which is why most disability and chronic disease groups are against most forms of Euthanasia, because the able bodied people involved don't often understand what is truely involved.
For example, proper, universal care in order to give the best stable quality of life combined with a team to deal with pain control and other medical issues would afford many people an extention of the time they have with loved ones, and with thier own desires of what they want to do with thier life. When, on the other hand, you have regulated care and have open sores and have to lie in your own bowel movements for hours (or if it is a holiday weekend), days, then yes, killing yourself seems preferable - not to the disease, but the way the quality of your life has been tossed aside.
As cancer patients and others know, nothing is more painful that your body destroying itself; and yes, sometimes that can blow past the opiates and sometimes, when you can't breathe or you are having heart infarctions or siezures, you think, "Yeah, okay, here I go." But I don't, I have adaptive tech and eventually I might type using my eyes (which ironically will go too), or tapping. And maybe, when it is a matter of hours or days, then it will be time to put me into a coma until nature takes it's course.
Of course, everyone makes up thier own decision, but please, stop saying, "I would rather die than be like that." because you really don't know what you are talking about, until you are there. Humans are very resiliant and can get used to a LOT of things. And when a person really and determinedly wants to go, well, let them go. But don't go around encouraging a culture where we see sickness and disease as something alien or "ungodly" but rather just part of the human condition: if you are born you will die, and you will be sick.
I am no pollyanna, and I still have a bit of a trip down the road of a disease which there is no treatment, no cure: indeed, all they can do is wait, watch and autopsy you to try and find something out for the next generation.
But if I had to ask myself, which is worse: the way every christian and friend I knew took off because illness made them uncomfortable after a few months; the way administrations give mountains of paperwork to people who may have difficulty holding a PEN, the stigma and view of dying or disabled people as ALREADY disposable and the idea that somehow they are "plucky" or "inspirational" or some 'other' type of human instead of someone just like you, only they have to wait for help to get to the toilet, or spend evenings coughing up bloody congealed phlegm (once your swallow function goes) before watching thier fav TV, shows. And yeah, they may go, "What Seven Seasons of Lost, I'll be lucky to see five....what happens with Sawyer?" - take all that and take the condition itself, well, one WILL kill me eventually, in months or a year or two while the other already, in most cases treats me a dead, defunct and are disinterested.
A friend died of ALS four nights ago, his last words before dying were written in advance, because of course he had to type them out. They were= "It was fun."
Trust me, watching your body shrivel, explode, and rip apart may be distressing and often pain, but it certainly isn't boring. And we don't offer people Euthanasia before Roller Coasters do we? Or scary movies?
I'm not saying I am against all Euthanasia, but I am strongly against a society and a view that feels, once I cannot speak anymore, that my life must not be worth living.
Oh as for those who think a slow death is God's wake up call - I guess Jesus must have been wavering in his faith too huh....no serious, come and dance with me; spend three days with me, in my house and you can let me know what God's message is. But remember, you might get hit by a bus on the way over here and kill right away: is that message that you weren't worth the time for God to have a conversation with you?
