It’s really crazy how stupid and science-phobic the US Congress so often is. Apparently they passed a law in ‘96 to mandate the sell off of the US helium reserves for pennies, and haven’t done anything to correct it.
No squeaky voices when you use helium and a suicide bag, and the great advantage over carbon monoxide is that the way the helium bonds to your blood there is no gasping reflex and your brain shuts down in a matter of seconds. It’s reasonably foolproof so long as nobody is around to attempt resuscitation. I’d prefer a phenobarbital cocktail, but beggars can’t be choosers.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
My guess is that the outlook depends on the person, more than the circumstances. I have a very good friend who is 70 and is in bad shape--he cannot eat or drink anything (he uses a feeding tube and syringe, he has serious heart and vascular problems and is constantly tired (this in a guy who was very active), he is an accomplished artist (who has sold many paintings at local galleries and shows) who is now blind in one eye and has poor vision in the other, and has a life of going to one doctor after the other--yet he perseveres and finds what joy he can in his family and friends. It's not a life I would like, but it's one he is content (if not happy with) and I would never deny him that choice.
On the other hand, a father of one of my friends died fairly recently after a long history of heart disease, including triple bypass at 81 (he didn't really want it, but he was of a generation where the doctor was god and you did wha he told you; he was left in pretty poor physical shape, constantly on oxygen and unable even to walk 20 feet without sitting down. All of his friends and wife were dead, and his life was pretty much waiting for death. He one time told me something to the effect of "This isn't life"). I think a merciful exit could have benefitted him.
Ditto my father, who lost a leg to diabetes in his 70s, and then lived another almost 10 years of being in and out of the hospital and rehab centers several times a year. when he started to show signs of kidney disease, he said he was going to refuse dialysis and I supported him in that decision (it didn't come to that--he died shortly after that discussion). Again, I think he would have preferred a merciful exit to those 10 years (or at least most of them).
Guin, my condolences on your loss and I am happy you had that additional time together. But everyone is different, as are the way diseases progress, and while some may live a fulfilling life as their abilities and options decline, some find it a living hell. In the end, we each must make that decision for ourselves, and hope our proxies, and the law, permit those wishes to be carried out.
Last edited by Big RR on Fri May 31, 2019 2:34 pm, edited 2 times in total.
If my chronic health problems worsen quicker than expected there is much food for thought. And if not, I'll just keep sucking it up in the knowledge that it's better me than you.
The cards we're dealt... I usually get the Jokers.
“In a world whose absurdity appears to be so impenetrable, we simply must reach a greater degree of understanding among us, a greater sincerity.”
Thanks guys. It’s been a really tough year, but onward and forward. And the beautiful summer light and air makes it easier.
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké
