Euthanasia For Humans - Right or wrong?

debra myers

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I lost both my mom and then my dad to cancer - dying with dignity is very important to me. Crying is good for the soul........I'm there with you.
 

deb25

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Heck no, Eeva, seeing things in shades of gray is one of the best things about growing up. I know a few mature adults who still only see things in black and white. It makes it very difficult for them to see the nuances of individual situations.
 

donna

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Well, there goes my cleaning day!

You guys are SO bad for me. This issue is one that is very close to my heart.

Back when I was 18, my Mom, who had terminal lung cancer, layed in her bed and said she couldn't go through it anymore. She was being given injections of Morphine by my father several times a day for the pain, was wheelchair bound and lost the vision in her right. She was in so much agony and so dependent upon my dad (her childhood sweetheart), that she said she felt humiliated. She wanted it to end. Well, back in 1973, there was no marijuana for pain and nauseousness of chemotherapy. Just hard drugs. Day after day I saw her deteriorate from a lively, rambunctious Mom that I loved with all my heart and sole, to a woman of 85 pounds who was taken out of my house in a coma at 2 a.m. because the cancer had gone to her brain. Where was Dr. Kevorkian when she needed him???? She died at the age of 44.

Do I believe in Dr. K? You bet I do. Do I believe that anyone has the right to tell me how to live my life or when to end it? Hell no. In Connecticut, DNR (do not resuscitate) laws are very specific. I worked on an ambulance for 20 years and we were taught that if a patient had a BRACELET that said DNR, we were not allowed to perform CPR or any life-saving measures on them.

I will absolutely never force my family into debt because someone believes that I need machines to keep me alive. If I ever feel or am ever diagnosed with a life-altering disease that is eventually going to turn me into a lump in a bed on machines, I will take the necessary action to see that I cruise on outta her with dignity, never being a burden to my family. And it will be at my own hands. I would never ask my family or friends to do it for me. I wouldn't want them to live with the guilt for the rest of their lives.

That's MY opinion.

Dr. K is my hero.

Donna

Now for some housework before I start to cry.
 

deb25

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When my father was ill last year with what eventually turned out o be leukemia, he wanted to live in the worst possible way. I won't even go into my thoughts about the doctors who were treating, or rather mistreating him for majority of the time.

At any rate, when it came down to the end and his life involved nothing more than trips to the hospital for transfusions, which became more necessary with more frequency than was medically possible, he finally elected to have Hospice come in and take over his care. He was at home, but one of the conditions of Hospice care was that he had to discontinue all other medical care except for pain maintenance. Watching him die was the hardest experience I have ever had, but he got to go on his own terms. I do know that Hospice will care for a person for up to 6 months, so I suppose it is a form of human euthanasia. The nurses were wonderful. I know that the one there with my dad and us at the end was a special kind of


If I was in a situation such as my dad's, I would do the same thing. He had no quality of life left. I miss him each and every day, but I don't for one second begrudge him the choice of letting go when there was no hope left.
 

cassandra_starr

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Ok, so this is a hard subject to pin an opinion on.


Basically.. if a person in a veggie state.. or is in extreme amounts of pain and will without a doubt die anyway... I see no problem with letting them go. Making them stay alive as long as possible when they are in pain and they are miserable emotionally, mentally, physically.. in any state.. to me thats just as bad as torture. These people are suffering inside and out.. and if they know that they are gonna die soon anyway or they won't be able to have much of a life because of medical conditions.. then its their right to let go.


Most people know now that if they are ever in a veggie state.. they do or don't want to live. I, for one, don't. I have also told my boyfriend, mother, family etc this and etc.

If the person is of sane mind when they make the decision then I think their wishes should be respected. Let them go how they want to go.


-Cass
 

airprincess

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I brought this back up because we were on the subject, and I think there are a lot of intelligent opinions expressed here. I know that I personally don't have the energy to repost my story.
 

debra myers

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AP - I am sorry that my other question brought this up again for you -It was unintentional on my part - just had this thought on my mind a lot lately after watching TV and having a new dx myself to deal with. Please forgive me if I have offended you....
As I told you before - i agree with the decison you made to let your mom go - I hope that someone would love me enough to do the same.
 

airprincess

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Debra, there is NO reason to apoligize. I didn't mind the subject being brought up at ALL. It reminded me of this thread, which has a lot of insightful feedback IMO, and I thought it might be of interest to those who hadn't seen it before.

I personally didn't want to repost what I had before, simply because it's a long story. It didn't bother me at all that the subject had been brought up again, I just thought it made this thread relevant, and there are some people who posted who aren't around much anymore, like Meowman and Cassandra Starr who had something of value to say.

You didn't offend me in the least. I'm sorry I gave you that impression.
 

debra myers

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AP - you didn't give me that impression at all! I just felt bad for bringing up painful memories for you.
Deb
 

catarina77777

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Wow, this is a very sad, but very realistic discussion.

I would imagine that there are things that we must face no matter what and I don't feel comfortable knowing that some poor person would be responsibile for my death; however, what if my folks couldn't take seeing me in this state? What if they were told there was no hope in saving me. I would hope that they would allow themselves to know and feel they did the right thing and let me go. We will see each other again! That is my belief anyway

...I don't know that it's right to sustain someone that is in terrible pain, or asks to die. If that person could, I wonder if they would take their own lives? I have read all of these posts and I'm so very sorry to read what has taken place in some of your lives. I've never been put in such a situation and I pray that I never have to.
 

mr. cat

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I agree with you. Personally, I don't want to be kept alive by artificial means if by so doing I'm going to live in a vegetative state. Mind, if using artificial means leads to my being able to live a "normal" life then I'm all for them.

To this end, I've signed one of those directive-to-physicians papers indicating no so-called "heroic" means should be used to prolong my life. Of course, the dilemma is that "heroic" measures can just as easily lead to my living a "normal" life — depending upon why such measures are contemplated in the first place. At this point, however, here in the State of Oregon that's the best I can do legal-wise.

I personally don't think anyone in the real world could be euthanized for other than patient quality-of-life reasons. The idea that somebody would be denied life-saving medical procedures just because that person might be a cantankerous, or because a beneficiary wants insurance money, is ludicrous.

Of course, all manner of "urban legend" stories will pop up via right-wing media of communication: Joe Blow from Kokomo was unplugged from his respirator by his selfish children, Aunt Martha was unplugged from thus-and-such an apparatus by hospital administrators because she couldn't pay her bill, et cetera. My death-bed fiction would feature an insurance-company representative reaching for that electrical socket in the wall on orders from bean counters at the home office!

Black-helicopter and new-world-order stories are just plain laughable, yet there are those who wish to believe such tripe. So, naturally, there will be those who buy into the notion of lab-coated grim reapers descending upon hospitals and nursing homes to end lives "prematurely" for profit.



=^..^=
 
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