suicide, assisted and otherwise
Washington has become the second state to enact a death with dignity law, after Oregon. Go, Pacific Northwest. Montana suddenly recognizes the right to die, although it's by a judge's ruling rather than a law.
The Washington law only applies to people with six months or less to live. That's an ironic provision because it means that someone looking forward to years of pain and debilitation has no recourse to the law even though they are set up to suffer more and longer than someone whose pain and debilitation is likely to come to a natural end within months.
Meanwhile, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested four members of the Final Exit Network, including Thomas "Ted" Goodwin, 63, for helping John Celmer, 58, commit suicide in June 2007. The Final Exit people can show you how to use readily available helium tanks to take yourself out painlessly and really quickly. The poor man's alternative uses over-the-counter sleeping pills and a plastic bag. Or you can find some way to stockpile a lethal dose of prescription sleeping pills. The Final Exit Network is controversial even within the right-to-die movement because their volunteers aren't doctors. Dr. Kevorkian, out on parole, now advocates agitating to change the laws rather than acting outside of them.
What few people appreciate is that people in the US already have the right to hasten their own ends, albeit only slowly and with difficulty. Adults have the right to refuse not only medical treatment but also food and water. Hunger pangs often go away after the first day of fasting, but dying from lack of food takes weeks, maybe months. Ending your life by not drinking is faster, but thirst doesn't go away like hunger does. I've heard the sufficient pain killers can handle even end-stage thirst, but you need to find a sympathetic doctor. Even so, death takes days, maybe a week. An individual in the US has the right to refuse food and water and to bring about their own demise. The debate is over the method. Quick and painless, with assistance, is OK only in a few states and only in narrow situations. Slow and grueling, however, is everyone's right.
The Washington law only applies to people with six months or less to live. That's an ironic provision because it means that someone looking forward to years of pain and debilitation has no recourse to the law even though they are set up to suffer more and longer than someone whose pain and debilitation is likely to come to a natural end within months.
Meanwhile, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested four members of the Final Exit Network, including Thomas "Ted" Goodwin, 63, for helping John Celmer, 58, commit suicide in June 2007. The Final Exit people can show you how to use readily available helium tanks to take yourself out painlessly and really quickly. The poor man's alternative uses over-the-counter sleeping pills and a plastic bag. Or you can find some way to stockpile a lethal dose of prescription sleeping pills. The Final Exit Network is controversial even within the right-to-die movement because their volunteers aren't doctors. Dr. Kevorkian, out on parole, now advocates agitating to change the laws rather than acting outside of them.
What few people appreciate is that people in the US already have the right to hasten their own ends, albeit only slowly and with difficulty. Adults have the right to refuse not only medical treatment but also food and water. Hunger pangs often go away after the first day of fasting, but dying from lack of food takes weeks, maybe months. Ending your life by not drinking is faster, but thirst doesn't go away like hunger does. I've heard the sufficient pain killers can handle even end-stage thirst, but you need to find a sympathetic doctor. Even so, death takes days, maybe a week. An individual in the US has the right to refuse food and water and to bring about their own demise. The debate is over the method. Quick and painless, with assistance, is OK only in a few states and only in narrow situations. Slow and grueling, however, is everyone's right.