FOR THOSE OF US WHO WOULD LIKE TO DIE WITH DIGNITY WHEN WE FEEL READY

Jane Brody wrote on 3/18 in the NY Times:

"My Feb. 5 column, “A Heartfelt Appeal for a Graceful Exit,” prompted a deluge of information and requests for information on how people too sick to reap meaningful pleasure from life might be able to control their death.

Many seeking such control are take-charge people who consider quality of life more important than quantity. They do not want their hard-earned money squandered on costly, yet hopeless, treatments. They do not want to keep their bodies alive when their minds have died. They do not want to die under circumstances they consider inhumane, hooked up to all sorts of medical apparatus, unable to control bodily functions or to communicate with loved ones." Click here for the rest of the article.

CNN wrote today on a man's desperate solution in Australia. Tony Wilson wrote about an 81 year old who built his own robot to shoot him. It worked. The article did not include instructions. A French woman, pleading to be euthanized, was told by the courts how sympathetic they were to her situation but the law did not permit assisted suicide. She died, a mother of three, at age 52 after her facial tumor left her blind, disfigured and suffering intense pain.

Indeed, there are many depressed people who would commit suicide who, when properly medicated and brought into proper chemical balance, find new joys in living. However, that is definitely not true for terminally ill people when the doctors know of no cure and the patient is agonizing in pain with no quality of life. When will society learn we need to hear people who have no hope and are asking, in their helplessness, for kindness from their fellow human beings. They should not have to suffer while people voice compassion but take no action to offer it.