I think you might be overestimating the capacity to enjoy anything at that point
Ok I have an idea. I’m all for giving people the option of assisted suicide, but it’s just way too medical and boring! I want something with pizazz!
I have a better idea. The US government has been dying to get back into nuclear testing. I say, let’s kill two birds with one atomic bomb! We designate a site out in the Nevada desert somewhere. Then, once a year, anyone who qualifies for assisted suicide gathers there. You have all the regular safeguards existing assisted suicide processes have. Everyone there first says goodbye to their families. Then they walk through the gate, present their ticket, and take a bus to ground zero.
They arrive at dawn. Through the day they have access to every illegal drug one can imagine. Finally at the end of the day, at sundown, a great countdown is held. As the last light of their last day winks out, a second sunrise blooms across the desert. And everyone present goes out in the most epic way imaginable - high out of their minds and instantly vaporized under the light of a thousand suns.
Forget doing this in a hospital or hospice and being given some nasty poison to drink. I want to go out at ground zero of a nuclear explosion! Just put me close enough to the center so I actually get vaporized, not one of those unlucky ones that just gets their skin burned off and has to die painfully over several hours or days.
We’ll call it … burning… man ?
Cute. But my inner engineer and scientist needs to point out that at these temperatures, “burning” doesn’t really apply. At these heat fluxes, you don’t so much combust as simply stop being chemistry and start being physics.
That’s the appeal of it. It’s literally the most painless way possible to go out. Your brain has been turned to plasma before pain signals even have a chance to reach it.
A little on the nose, eh?
Ha, pretty good option. I wouldn’t get a ticket. But, seems reasonable.
I’ll be outside, in a recliner, fire pit going. My friends all around.
I’d sip some of this & that. Eat my favs. And have both music and “MASH” playing until I fade away.
Life is a terminal illness and tomorrow is promised to no one.
Based enabler
And new friend for life, even if only for a day!
I mean they kinda are. It’s called hospice and it’s when they break open the good shit.
Unfortunately, a lot of people arent.
Due largely to religious bullshit (at least in america), its very very difficult to get death with dignity. My grandma has parkinsons, she wants to go on hospice before it takes her brain, but her doctor is Catholic and decided its against his religion to let her die as she wants to.
Shes trying to find a doctor who will let her, but its very very difficult. Its still considered murder in most of the country, and even most Hospice doctors wont do anything besides not resuscitate. We have to be careful to not call an ambulance for her, because if she goes to a hospital, the doctor is allowed to just ignore her DNR if thats against their religion.
Are you not thinking of euthanasia? Hospice is like a care home for people who are dying
The marketing department decided on “assisted suicide” because euthanasia is an icky word. Didn’t you get the memo?
They have distinct meanings. Euthanasia = someone else pushes the button. Assisted suicide = you push the button. Assisted suicide is legal in 12 states. Euthanasia is legal in 0.
Are real actual medical doctors even allowed to do that based on religion?
I got severe pushback from a nurse for saying DNR when I was last in the hospital. It seems that healthcare workers often possess no ethics, standards, or intellect in the USA.
Not just allowed, actively pushed to do so.
The doctor she goes to did it, just decided that it was against his religion for her to decide to go on hospice care.
Even if he would allow it, in order for her to get on hospice, her doctor would have to go in front of an ethics committee and argue for her to be allowed to go on hospice. If anyone on the ethics committee objects, she isn’t allowed.
California has a right-to-die law (one of very few states that does). You are allowed to die if your doctor can prove that your disease will kill you in 6 months, that you are coherent (at the time of death, you cant sign anything beforehand for it), if you are capable of taking the suicide pills without assistance.
The doctor has to document that you made two separate distinct verbal requests, 48 hours apart. Has to document that your disease will kill you in 6 months, has to document that you are able to take the pills on your own with no assistance (too weak to die? too bad). The case is automatically reviewed (and they will try to take away the doctors license every time).
And anyone involved is allowed to stop you if they object on any grounds.
Killing yourself is a sin in most versions of Christianity, so its effectively illegal in most of the country, and any doctor that is willing to let you has to really really work to not get their license taken and them thrown in jail.
Hospice is not the same thing as assisted suicide though
True.
But Hospice is generally required to get to assisted suicide tho.
Or at least, it was when my dad finally got to die.
The normal doctor wouldn’t do it, the hospital didnt allow it except for in hospice.
And then we had to fight for a week to get the hospice doctor to let him die.
They don’t. They base their decision on religion, but they justify it with big medical and sciencey words. But they’ll tell you it’s due to their faith (if they’re so bold).
My grandmas doctor just straight up said that killing yourself is a sin and its against his religion to help her commit a sin when she asked to go on hospice.
that is how hospice works. they won’t euthanasia they will just let you die and do theoretical pain management. My mom died of dehydration in hospice because it was “unethical” to just give her a shot of barbituates when half her brain was no longer functioning after a stroke.
That is how hospice works. they won’t euthanasia they will just let you die and do theoretical pain management.
Depends on the doctor. If you get a good one, they will give you a lot of painkillers that will shorten your life significantly.
My mom died of dehydration in hospice because it was “unethical” to just give her a shot of barbituates when half her brain was no longer functioning after a stroke.
Unfortunately, end of life care is very poorly regulated (to protect people).
YSK hospice basically means they starve you to death but they keep you high so you don’t care. They do not feed you, they sit you in a chair and hook you up to the drugs. Maybe that’s a better way to go than going without the drugs, but that’s pretty much what they do. Maybe some of them overdose you, I’m not really sure. It’s state assisted suicide. And it’s not quick. If it’s what people want I’m not saying to take away their choice and I’m not saying it’s an easy choice, but I wouldn’t romanticise hospice. If nothing else, look into exactly what they do and don’t do. It may vary from place to place. If you have something really bad like, say, cancer and chemo isn’t helping, and the cancer will take you before the starvation… it can be the better option. I am not familiar with Parkinson’s and I’m certainly not judging your family!
…that’s not how hospice works. Hospice is just care to keep a patient comfortable through a condition they’re not expected to survive. Food can be part of keeping a patient comfortable if they’re able to eat. Some people aren’t able to eat, and then you start getting into the hard questions like whether it’s ethical to keep someone alive with a feeding tube and IV drip just so their brain can soak up more morphine, but the cutoff of life sustaining treatments depends a lot on the nature of the condition, what the patient stated when they were in a sound state of mind previously via a ‘living will’, or at the discretion of family.
But yeah, you can be on hospice for months - they absolutely feed you unless there’s some reason not to. You can also come off of hospice if the underlying condition improves on its own and it starts to look like you’ll actually recover - it’s not a death sentence or assisted suicide or anything.
Treatment depends on condition, they don’t just starve everyone to death
Check your state law. In some states it is very illegal to ignore a properly filled out DNR, religion or no religion.
Also, hospice is not state assisted suicide. Hospice is comfort care, and it’s not about causing someone to die, it’s about helping someone who is terminal be more comfortable during the time they have left.
Check your state law. In some states it is very illegal to ignore a properly filled out DNR, religion or no religion.
It is 100% legal to refuse medical care because of being Christian. This has been litigated to death.
Its illegal to punish somebody for refusing to provide medical care if they claim that doing so would be against their (christian) religion. This has also been litigated to death.
Also, hospice is not state assisted suicide.
No, but Hospice does include not preventing death if the patient doesnt want to go on a bunch of stuff
Hospice is comfort care, and it’s not about causing someone to die, it’s about helping someone who is terminal be more comfortable during the time they have left.
And usually letting them die when they want to.
Its how my dad finally died, He got hospice and the doctor gave him a massive overdose of Morphine (after multiple days of asking the doctor to let him die).
So you grandma is catholic.
Let’s be clear here.
And yes, killing someone is very problematic. I admit I don’t have the answer.
Let’s not act like this is that simple.
So you grandma is catholic.
No, her doctor is, my grandma is Atheist
Let’s be clear here.
Its pretty fucking clear
And yes, killing someone is very problematic. I admit I don’t have the answer.
I do, let people die when they want to.
Let’s not act like this is that simple.
It really is
in Little Miss Sunshine, Alan Arkin plays a grandad who practices and preaches that heroin is only for the old.
Drugs should be limited only in regards to they impare people and the activities they do while on them.
Impair
we’re all in our last days pal
Sure, yes. I don’t even do drugs anymore, and was never really into opiates when I did, but my experience coming out of anaesthesia with a nurse who was remarkably free handed with opiates in the IV as she didn’t want me to wake up quite yet convinced me that is the way to go. Let me just float out on a soft cloud. It’s an annoying feeling when awake and trying to do anything; but as a death it seems perfect.
that is what an overdose is for an addict
Honestly if you’re over 40 or 50 and you’re using it yourself and not sharing it, I think you should be able to legally do drugs regardless. At that point you know well enough what it will do and should be free to decide.
I’d say if you’re old enough to be drafted or vote.
An adult.
I’ve always said this, and that age was a long time ago for me.
They key is proper education. If I understand the risks, then it’s on me.
Good hot take. I agree
