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Do I believe in assisted suicide? You bet I do. And here, in response to the hbo_jack Open Call, is why.
In January 2009, I posted here the story of my mother's lonely suicide in Seattle. My sister, who lived nearby, wished she had been with her when our mother ended her life with a method recommended in Final Exit (a book that is, by the way, banned but read in France). The policeman, who had to be called when my sister and her husband discovered Mother's body, said he would have been compelled to arrest my sister had she been present.Would a civilized and compassionate society allow elderly parents to end their lives alone if convinced the time has come? I don't think so, and now neither do the states of Washington, where my mother died, Oregon, and Montana. All three have passed enlightened laws about euthanasia.
In this country, Dr. Jack Kevorkian is our most famous advocate for assisted suicide. He has helped over 100 people die. Many had terminal cancer. More had Alzheimer's disease and chose to die while they were still able to make that choice instead of surviving in a body without a well functioning brain.
Across the pond, British author Sir Terry Pratchett, who has Alzheimer's, proposes that tribunals decide if those with a fatal illness are of sound enough mind to choose assisted suicide and, if they are, to allow a doctor to help them end their lives as Pratchett himself is determined to do.
While the British take a laissez-faire approach to assisted suicide that is popular among intellectuals, British law is a tad irrational: suicide is not illegal, but aiding in a suicide is, so it is a crime to participate in a non-criminal act. Nonetheless, a British jury found a woman not guilty of murder after she assisted in the suicide of her 31-year-old daughter, who suffered from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. The judge, observing that she had acted in her daughter's "best interest," gave the mother a 12-month conditional discharge. Damned civilized, those Brits.
Here at home, Sharon and Ozzy Osborne have gone public with their plan to end their lives under specific circumstances. It will be their “final gift of love to (their) kids.” Sharon has been quoted by MSNBC as saying, “Ozzy and I have absolutely come to the same decision. We believe 100 percent in euthanasia [and] have drawn up plans to go to the assisted suicide flat in Switzerland if we ever have an illness [like Alzheimer's] that affects our brains. … We gathered the kids around the kitchen table, told them our wishes and they've all agreed to go with it.”
Assisted suicide or euthanasia for the elderly and the incurably sick who want to end their suffering is controversial. Assisted suicide for healthy adults who prefer death to life for other reasons is wildly controversial. Australia's "Dr. Death" — Philip Nitschke — tells audiences all over the world how to kill themselves with a helium canister rented from a party-balloon store and how to get animal-euthanasia drugs from Mexico. He told the National Review Online that "all people qualify [for assisted suicide] ... including the depressed, the elderly bereaved, the troubled teen." He gives new meaning to "having no limits."
In November 2009, the San Francisco Gate Online published an article about Nitschke, who was about to tell his audience at the Buddhist Center in San Francisco how to kill themselves. The author of the article was Wesley J. Smith, a senior fellow in human rights and bioethics at the Discovery Institute and a consultant with the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide and the Center for Bioethics and Culture. His credentials make the question he asked in the article all the more interesting:
If society comes to broadly accept a "right" of the dying to receive assisted suicide — currently legal in three states — what would prevent legal access to terminal prescriptions from expanding eventually to people with serious disabilities and chronic diseases, the elderly and the existentially despairing, who, after all, might suffer far more profoundly and for a longer time?
Comments on my Open Salon blog about my mother's suicide were overwhelmingly supportive, although there was, of course, the objection that because religion teaches that suicide is a sin, we should not assist anyone in committing that sin. There were those who would rather go out on their own terms than suffer dementia, paralysis, or unbearable pain. One person insisted that assisted suicide should be legal while another described parents who prefer to deny that death is near. And a pious troll opined that suicide is the coward's way out.
In contrast, a teacher of ethics and suicide noted that suicide can be objective and courageous but that we need to free ourselves of "pharmacological talk" and concentrate rationally on meaning and alternatives. Another point of view was that we should save resources for the young and not waste them on the elderly who feel their lives are complete. The reminder that Sigmund Freud's own doctor provided the famous man with the pills he used for suicide concluded with the writer admitting he's grateful to have someone to "pull the plug" on him if necessary.
As for me, I think the issue is simple in some cases. Why should we force someone to keep breathing whose quality of life is rewarding for no one, least of all the person who yearns to die? Yet, doing research for a book on suicide, I've found so many instances of people who, like Brooke Shields and Billy Joel, are grateful that they lived through their suicidal episodes that I think we need sophisticated psychological screening if we are to legalize assisted suicide for anyone whose quality of life is not doomed never to improve. Ideally, we will learn to balance reason and compassion in our approach to euthanasia and assisted suicide.
© Copyright 2010 by Hawley Roddick. All rights reserved.
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Comments
aim, my book-in-progress on suicide includes the info that interests you. The research on changing attitudes toward suicide is fascinating. I'd post it here, but I figure OS can only take so many suicide related posts. Maybe I should create a suicide blog?
There are those so depressed and mentally ill that their lives are unbearable and who are we as a society to say that only those who are physically sick have the right to end their own lives. And then there are many people feeling suicidal that are in need of medication and counseling, who can be "fixed." What a tragedy to end one's life if treatment could have changed everything. The old adage that suicide is a long term solution to a short term problem (in cases of depression) is largely accurate.
I certainly feel that the terminally ill have every right to hasten their own deaths in any manner they choose, and that the materials to bring this about should be legal and available. I'd extend that to those who are extremely disabled and have decided they have had enough.
I wonder what someone like Steven Hawkings would have to say about this.
talk about bringing it home
My heart breaks to think of your mother's lonely end..
Make sure you let us know when your book is published and where it will be available, I'd love to read it!
Rated for memory and inspiration.
I have talked to my daughters and we have all agreed that we do not want to be kept on life support if a doctor makes a statement that indicates there can be no real recovery.
We have, in place, a plan for assisted suicide if it should happen that we become unable to care for ourselves and unwilling to live in that state.
I believe that assisted suicide is more of a gift than it is a crime.
This is a very important issue and I thank you for writing about it.
Suicide has been a factor in my family, assisted suicide is now an approaching factor. Calm, reasoned, beautifully written posts like yours help so much with perspective. Thank you.
I can understand how some could view assissted suicide as "too convenient," but what the heck is convenient about Alzheimers or a terminal illness? I'm definitely not in favor of an elderly or terminally ill person being pressured into it against their own inclination for the convenience of relatives who do not want to care for them. Any medically useful procedure has the potential to be abused in direct proportion to its usefulness. But the assistant in an assisted suicide should always be just that; an assistant, not the person making the decision.
Cartouche and Nikki, high praise coming from you two. Thank you.
Latethink, Margaux Hemingway's suicide is haunting.
Seer and Owl, I'm pleased that you want to read the book in progress. Thanks for the encouragement.
Weezilgirl, you sound realistic and smart about end-of-life challenges.
Ladyfarmerjed, I agree that this is an important issue.
Monsieur, I'm happy to hear this is not a topic you dwell on but thank you for reading when I do.
Placebostudeman, I wish more people agreed that there is no reason to endure suffering that can't be alleviated.
Thanks for the rating, Sheila.
Sally, my heart goes out to you in the upcoming challenge of assisted suicide becoming a factor in your family.
Shiral, you've given thought and empathy to the issues I raise and I'm grateful for your response.
Dr. Kevorkian is a man who is obsessed with death. He is a shameless self promoter. He is in favor of the death penalty. And I feel he is a personification of what we stand to become as a nation if we legalize assisted suicide.
Suicide is NOT normal. If we legalize it, we normalize it. I do not stand here to morally judge anybody who has made that decision -- to take his or her own life. I know of several people who have chosen suicide. In each case that I am aware of their deaths caused extreme suffering to their families and loved ones. Some people here have written about peaceful suicides and even situations where family members have helped. My heart goes out to each and every person who has posted on this emotional topic.
But I am here to be the dissenting voice, I suppose, and to say I believe with every fiber of my being that suicide is not normal. Our obligation as a society is to do EVERYTHING we can to love and comfort people who are suffering. Bring them pain medicine -- lots of it if needed. Sing to them, bathe them, brush their hair, whatever hair they might have.
But please -- do not assist in helping them kill themselves.
Life is a gift.
Let the tomatoes fly. I think I am very much alone in this stance here on OS.
Peace be with you all.
Very moving post.
I happen to agree w/you that voluntary euthanasia will become legal someday in this country, in some limited form, once baby-boomers start retiring in droves. Not to be flip about it, but the sheer #s of elderly citizens will mandate such. We’ll see massive #s of elderly boomers w/terminal or life-destroying illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, many more of them w/out family or close friends, let alone tax $$, to check out of this dreary world w/dignity. No one will ever say it aloud, but it’ll be a way of “thinning the herd.” Some food for thought: if we think that health-care reform is a political football, just wait til boomers are fully retired w/their own health issues.
I’m an only child whose parents are now dead. W/two chronic conditions, I monitor my health very carefully b/c if I don’t, I have no one to care for me. I can’t imagine that I’m the only one in that situation.
I have yet to investigate what options will be open to me in my twilight years, but this is definitely on the short list.
This is a subject I've spent much time thinking about. I am pro-euthanasia for many reasons. First, I feel it is each persons right to make this decision for them self. Secondly, at the age of 66 I am grateful for the life I've had, and when it becomes my time to go, I'd just as soon see medical assets spent on other, younger folks who can benefit from them.
At some point, I think it becomes about quality of life, I know that was the case with my father, and I think it is a very individual thing. I also had a close friend who was terminally ill, she chose to enjoy each day until the very end. So let the posessor of the soul decide.
I think anyone who wants to die and who has, if possible, made a reasonable attempt to remedy his or her condition should be permitted to seek and obtain assistance. My life belongs to me, and I should be able to choose when to leave it.
The black and white aspects of it are easy. Someone has terminal cancer, foresees months of painful therapy, only to find out that no one gets out alive. Is it cowardly to opt for a hastening of the inevitable? I don't think it is. I wouldn't call it overly courageous either, but I certainly couldn't fault the patient going either way. I'm in Canada, and there have been quite a few high-profile cases of people doing that very thing. I suspect a larger number of lower profile cases as well.
The other end of the spectrum is someone having a bad day, bad month, bad year, and choosing to end it because "life is too hard". I've never been that depressed, so I can't speak from experience. However, that strikes me as just plain wrong. It's also a bit off-topic.
The gray areas in between, tho. There's where the bitch lies. My mother was diagnosed with congestive heart failure nearly two years ago, and given 6 months. She's still alive because her medication levels were buggered up and no one, including the MD who made that prognosis, was onto it. She now has dementia and has to be reminded what nursing home she's in, but she enjoys the quality of life she has, be that what it is.
I worry too, about health care administrators looking at the bottom line and weighing the relative costs of prolonged medical treatment vs. the single cost of self-administered suicide.
It's fine to advocate that we all need dignity at the ends of our lives, but in the above example, whose dignity are we talking about? Abuse in this topic is there - it's under the surface and would never be identified as such, but humans can be heartless bastards when it comes to the bottom line.
Like every other major human decision, there are a bunch of ways of looking at it.
Provocative post.
Tanuss
He ended his life with a bullet to the brain last month. His son had the misfortune to find him. It would have been so much better for all involved if he could have ended his life with dignity, surrounded by loved ones.
Rated for empathy.
Roger, I like to hope that no enlightened religion would advocate suffering. But doesn't the image of the crucifixion send, at the very least, a mixed message?
Kissinglessons, while I didn't characterize Dr. Kevorkian as a hero, I did suggest that he raises important questions. I also didn't claim that suicide is normal (whatever normal is). And while life is often a gift, as you assert, I'm afraid for some it seems a curse. But I agree with you that as a society, we should strive to decrease suffering.
Elsma03, interesting observation that the sheer number of elderly boomers will up the ante on the question of legal euthanasia. As for your own final exit, I hope it is peaceful and painless.
Jfernrn, thanks for encouraging the idea of a wide-perspective blog on suicide. I'm wondering now how to attract readers!
Plantlover, I admire you for wanting medical monies invested in younger people rather than in older people who feel they have had fulfilling lives. And as you say, people judge their own quality of life in different ways.
Leslie, in addition to stories about Eskimos putting elders on chunks of ice and setting them adrift, there are the stories of Americans taking away all the identification from a parent with Alzheimer's, buying them ice cream at a Howard Johnson's counter on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and taking off, never to be seen again. These are dramatic stories but I agree that they probably don't portray a common occurrence.
Monique, thanks for supporting the book idea.
Tanuss, I'm sorry about what happened to your mother, but at least she's enjoying her life as best she can. As for letting administrators decide to pull the plug on patients who are expensive for the hospital to keep, that's a terrifying idea. Only the patient, if able, and the patient's nearest loved one, if the patient isn't mentally able, should be allowed to make the death decision.
AR, like you, I'm intrigued by the number of people in Oregon who receive permission for euthanasia but don't go through with it. And by all means, we should do all we can to relieve suffering whenever we can.
Zoe, I haven't seen the Kevorkian movie; I don't get HBO; the film is in my Netflix queue. And I watch at Netflix the new TV series about the self-help group for suicide survivors, "Gravity," which Netflix streams starting the day the episode first plays on Starz. As for your own experience, my blood pressure rises when I remember what you and your family had to go through to support your mother's decision to die — without yourselves being arrested. But your memoir, Imperfect Endings, provides rich insights into this complex issue and illustrates what a loving experience euthanasia can be for one too ill to enjoy life.
Trishhie, from your posting to the goddess's inbox.
Nashville1958, I'm sorry about your friend's father and the son who found his body. Such terrible traumas illustrate why we need a humane approach to euthanasia.
A tribunal, that thought scares me.
If I were in my days with alzheimers or some other illness, please let me have the right to decide. having lived through some tough surgeries and the aftermath I have thought of suicide.
Time to let the word be left without a negative connotation. or even coining a new word to replace suicide, as so many are left with a nasty taste merely by the word?
How about "dignity to die when life is compromised?" Quality supercedes quantity any day.
Rated for subject. Rated for knowing the lines are wavy and the areas gray, but also that the choice should simply be THAT: a choice.
(and your sister arrested? Sheesh. That is criminal)
Abrawang, yes, I, too, am surprised to find myself citing Sharon and Ozzy Osborne.
Imprima, I agree we'd be better off with a word less heavy with negative associations than suicide.
Risa, I just edited the posting so that assisted suicide and euthanasia don't appear to be synonyms. Thanks for the useful information about Washington, too.
That said, I also remember my mother's slow and miserable death with ovarian cancer. It was the 1970s and pain medications were dispensed in bottles of 250 tablets. She had the means but never tried. I wonder whether she would have taken a different approach if someone had told her that it was OK to leave while she could still be aware of her surroundings. I remember people saying that her death was a blessing, that she was no longer suffering. What they really mean that it is a blessing for the living not to have to see her suffering.
Why do we keep holding back the right, in selective situations, the right of a human to self-determine before keeping them alive approaches the point of cruelty?