Suicide or What?

So, I have been thinking a lot about Assisted Suicide. A recent W5 episode brought this very controversial topic to mind.

I have a new perspective on this since I was in my youth and Sue Rodriguez made headlines. Since then I have spent many (too many) years fighting the urge to kill myself, and I gotta tell you, if I had had better opportunities, like someone to assist, I am not sure I would be alive to tell you this story today. I have been known to rationalize that my existence does not matter and that my chronic mental illness was reason enough to leave. I often envisioned my life as a person who would always relay on family to take care of me. I knew I would have ups and downs, sure, but I also knew (or believed) that there would times when I simply could not take care of myself. I believed this so profoundly that I had little faith in myself, which in the end, slowed my recovery considerably. I just let myself succumb to  my depression, anxiety and borderline. I allowed my life to become about giving up.

Quality of life is the main argument for assisted suicide. In my view, the quality of live I was living was so low the pit seemed to have no bottom. I couldn't see reasons to live when I just slept ate, and, shat. It was foreign to me to think that I could fight for a better quality of life and still live with mental illness.

Did you know that in Canada, there is a group of people who take part in a place called the farewell foundations? People go there to discuss ways to choose their deaths. Choose their deaths?? Self Chosen Death?? Well gee where and how do I sign up? I choose not to be near guns because I fear what I would do with such a weapon, now I can sign up to go somewhere and plan when and how I will die. It just sounds too easy doesn't it. It is not, however, so simple.

The second main argument for  euthanasia is fear of the future, fear of dying piece by piece one lady said. The argument is about terminal illness being the only reason such a suicide would be OK. One young man, diagnosed with multiple Sclerosis commented  "I love life-but-at some time in the future, that will stop" he says, "Nobody wants to kill themselves" So the question becomes, at what point does fear of the future intersect with quality of life. Millions of people today become situational depressed (depressed due to a situation like severe physical impairment), this kind of depression, if left unchecked, deeply affects quality of life and some, out of fear for their future, do want to kill themselves. Does this mean that they should be aloud to die? or should they fight for quality as they go? Are we(society) really able to "force" a person to fight for their own mental health even if such people really are looking at a bleak future. For some disorders, like MS, do have very bleak outcomes. Paralysis, agonising Pain, billions of dollars worth of medication over the years. However, MS and many other debilitating disorders, are not always terminal. The body may be the same for decades, they may need services for literally every aspect of life, but they will wither away long before their bodie dies. Should we insist that a person continue living regardless? Try not to forget, also, the economic factors. It costs money to take care of bedridden people for decades. They need physical therapy, doctors, specialists, medication (that often leads to addiction), nurses, family, friends. and so on... When is it too painful and costly to live?

I think that Self Chosen Death can become very open to abuse. The real problem with abuse is that over time, it has been shown, rules and policies become too relaxed over time. There may become too many cut corners like providing a client with a full range of options before offering death. Or families of clients who bring in insufficient evidence they their disabled family member wants to choose death. It quickly becomes a slippery slope of accountability.

Now Finally, I want to address the "Eliminating Suffering" aspect of making a choice to kill oneself. I don't know where most people live, but I am very aware now that we all suffer. Not a single human (or creature on earth for that matter) is exempt from this basic Law of nature. We often believe and feel that we are the only ones, that nobody gets our troubles. We see that the grass is greener over the fence and that the Jones are a sort of perfection we could never live up to. There is no eliminating suffering. We don't, naturally, get the option to check out when we stop loving life. We evolved on this planet as survivors. Humans have beat the odds and ended up on the very top of the food chain. We would not be at the top if we gave up.

I am all for the option to assisted suicide in the right situations. I just don't believe that It will be easy to determine, under the law, when, how, by who and what the right circumstances are going to be.

Check it out for yourselves and see what you think.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20100129/dying_100129/