What Would You Do If You Had a Life You Could Not Enjoy Any More?

rgp said:
I remember.....I guess i used the wrong words?
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There are other doctors now, from deathwithdignity.org website...

Death with dignity laws allow qualified terminally-ill adults to voluntarily request and receive a prescription medication to hasten their death.
As of January 1, 2019, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington have death with dignity statutes. In Montana, physician-assisted dying has been legal by State Supreme Court ruling since 2009.
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Maybe think of this question as a way to think about your life now, before you might get to the possible turn of events where you are alone, ill, and hopeless, and live now as if you were dying.

 

Butterfly said:
The only situation in which I can see myself considering ending my own life would be an illness with no hope and intolerable pain. Most everything else can be gotten through. I'm certainly not going to shoot myself because I'm not having any fun lately or the end of a romantic entanglement. We can't expect life to always go our way or that we'll be free from anything sad or discouraging.
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I wouldn't choose shooting in any case. I saw a video about an 18 year old girl who tried to commit suicide when her BF sent her a text breaking up with her. She was a beautiful cheerleader type but was so destroyed emotionally by the break up. She went to her brother's house, he had a gun, and she shot herself in the mouth. The bullet shattered every bone in her face while missing her brain and she lived, horribly disfigured. She had a face transplant but still doesn't look "right". I think she's blind too because she was wearing dark glasses in the interview she gave. She can barely speak and I think she has to have a feeding tube, she wore one in the video. Moral of story, even though you may think it couldn't get worse, it can. Find a more sure way to self deliver if necessary.
 
Butterfly said:
The only situation in which I can see myself considering ending my own life would be an illness with no hope and intolerable pain. Most everything else can be gotten through. I'm certainly not going to shoot myself because I'm not having any fun lately or the end of a romantic entanglement. We can't expect life to always go our way or that we'll be free from anything sad or discouraging.
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I fully agree with you, Madame Butterfly. Suicide is devastating to those left behind unless it is for the reasons you describe. If I came to that point I would discuss it with my family and explain that there was no more point in survival. Even so, it would have to be a horrifically painful, terrible illness for me to choose my exit. Short of that, life will likely remain worth living until my natural end arrives.

The bravest person I've ever known was a very dear, highly intelligent, hilariously witty, Irish nun who, when told she had Alzheimer's, said that she guessed God decided that this was an experience he wanted her to have. She faced the challenge head on without a whimper and passed away from its complications after about 6 years. I don't think I have that kind of courage in me.
 
Before I went as far as committing suicide I would have to know that the ones around me were no longer enjoying the fact that I was still alive.

Before that I would try to make a way for others to enjoy anything I had to give them with my existence.
 
Seeker said:
Before I went as far as committing suicide I would have to know that the ones around me were no longer enjoying the fact that I was still alive.

Before that I would try to make a way for others to enjoy anything I had to give them with my existence.
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I think you'd also have to think about the negative impact watching you suffer was having upon them. Watching my mother suffer was the most exquisitely painful experience of my life.
 
I think you'd also have to think about the negative impact watching you suffer was having upon them.
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Yea that's kinda what I meant when I said the ones around me were longer enjoying the fact I was still alive. If that makes any sense...:)
 
I really don’t know and hope that I am never in that position. What I would hope is that I am able to accept my upcoming demise and rely on my spiritual nature to see me through until the end.

I have a former friend that I met when I was 5 and we stayed best friends through high school that just died from throat cancer that he says he got from Agent Orange while in Vietnam. I think maybe smoking 2-3 packs of cigarettes a day for 56 years may have also played a part in it. I heard he was ill just a month or so ago. I wanted to call him, but never did, now I carry that guilt. The way that I understand it is that he suffered with this disease for two years.

Meanwhile, I also have another former high school friend that is presently dying from ALS. He lives about 6 hours away, but will not see visitors. We keep in touch via e-mails, which is nice, but I would have liked to have visited him one more time. I understand his need for privacy at this point in his life, so I will respect that.
 
Butterfly said:
I think you'd also have to think about the negative impact watching you suffer was having upon them. Watching my mother suffer was the most exquisitely painful experience of my life.
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Same here, I watched my mother suffer till she passed of Cancer. It was incredibly hard to watch.
 
We often say things after a person passes "they are at peace now" or "now they are free". So why is it in question on whether suicide can be in some instances a blessing?
 
fmdog44 said:
We often say things after a person passes "they are at peace now" or "now they are free". So why is it in question on whether suicide can be in some instances a blessing?
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I had a paternal aunt that had the real bad form of arthritis (having a senior moment here) and was bedridden and she finally committed suicide. My mother acted like it was a scandal needing to be kept secret, I admired the aunt for taking control of her life. I've always felt that since I did not have a choice of being born, I should have a choice about dying.
 
fmdog44 said:
We often say things after a person passes "they are at peace now" or "now they are free". So why is it in question on whether suicide can be in some instances a blessing?
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I agree.

I see a HUGE difference between someone taking their own life for some reason like "my husband left me and I can't go on" (of course you can go on) and someone who takes their life because they are dying in some horrible way like cancer or ALS. In the latter case, I don't see it so much as suicide but hastening the inevitable -- it's not so much that you are choosing to die -- that choice is already made for you, you are dying -- but that you are choosing the manner of your exit. To me, that is a big difference.

My mother chose to cease all treatment for her cancer except palliative care because she said the chemotherapy made her sicker than the cancer did. She died sooner than she probably would have had she continued the chemo; but either choice would have ended up in the same place -- her death. I see that as not too very different than choosing to actively take steps to end your life when you see there is no alternative than an inevitable horrible death.
 
Butterfly said:
I agree.

I see a HUGE difference between someone taking their own life for some reason like "my husband left me and I can't go on" (of course you can go on) and someone who takes their life because they are dying in some horrible way like cancer or ALS. In the latter case, I don't see it so much as suicide but hastening the inevitable -- it's not so much that you are choosing to die -- that choice is already made for you, you are dying -- but that you are choosing the manner of your exit. To me, that is a big difference.

My mother chose to cease all treatment for her cancer except palliative care because she said the chemotherapy made her sicker than the cancer did. She died sooner than she probably would have had she continued the chemo; but either choice would have ended up in the same place -- her death. I see that as not too very different than choosing to actively take steps to end your life when you see there is no alternative than an inevitable horrible death.
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You hit the nail on the head!
 

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