Assisted Suicide Gone Too Far?
| 4/15/2009 | Posted by Patti under General |
I’m going to say at the outset, I’m a firm believer in a terminally ill person’s right to die with dignity. My personal standard is that the quality of life will have deteriorated to a point that the person is unlikely to enjoy any improvement in what will be an inevitable death. There is room to argue about what defines ‘quality of life’, that for the most part would have to be determined by the person suffering through the illness.
A Vancouver woman, who is otherwise in good health, wants to die alongside her husband. She says that her life would be unliveable without her husband. Her husband is dying from heart disease. I’ve been down that particular path, the spouse of a man dying of heart disease. Twenty years ago in August my husband succumbed.
The wife will suffer from grief but that is not a terminal illness for most people. Life will be different, it might not even seem as good but it will continue. Good grief lasts two years and bad grief a lifetime. Presumably, the lady will have the love and support of her two daughters, maybe even some grandchildren.
To me, choosing to end your life because your partner dies is going way too far when it comes to dying with dignity. I can’t begin to imagine what my life would be like if several people who I know and love were no longer around. I couldn’t imagine my life without my husband at the time. You know what? It went on, it wasn’t easy but it went on.
Because it went on for better or worse, I have continued to meet and enjoy the company of some wonderful people in my life. My home doesn’t have two legged companions in it but I enjoy the company of 3 four legged ones.
We may not want to deal with grief and loss but it is pretty much a required part of living. To allow anyone to opt out of that is to opt out of our respect for life. At some point in the whole death with dignity debate limits have to be set and maintained or it turns into no respect for life — our own or others.
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