‘I don’t want to die, but I don’t want to endure endless amounts of pain’
‘I don’t want to die, but I don’t want to endure endless amounts of pain’
Posted by mrniceguy9274
‘I don’t want to die, but I don’t want to endure endless amounts of pain’
‘I don’t want to die, but I don’t want to endure endless amounts of pain’
Posted by mrniceguy9274
9 Comments
My grandad went to hospital last month after collapsing and being found on the floor. He had been laying there for 36 hours with pneumonia.
The doctor told us he was very likely to die but there was the option to give him antibiotics to fight the infection. He cautioned against it though because it was unlikely to make a difference.
Foolishly my Mum said yes to the antibiotics.
Rather than dying quickly my Grandad lingered on in agony for another 10 days all the while begging to be allowed to die.
The NHS should never have given us the option of prolonging his life and I wish the doctor had been stricter.
My Grandad should have been allowed to slip away in his sleep when he initially came in. It would have been much more dignified and much less harrowing for everyone involved.
Assisted dying should be a human right.
It’s morbid but could people legally ask to be paralysed in a way to not feel pain anymore? Even though it could arguably reduce their quality of life (outside of having the pain reduced).
I don’t know if it’s possible to attach a strong magnet to part of their brain to “turn the pain off” but it would also affect your faculty.
The idea of being able to kill myself if things gets bad is all that keeps me going some times. The idea that I wouldn’t be able to kill myself is a nightmare.
Assisted dying, euthanasia, etc all need to be options.
A bit different but my mum passed away last month. She’d been very unwell since the start of the year, after having a stroke. In addition to heart disease, kidney failure and in the end what we think was a second stroke and then Covid, her last 48 hours were spent drowning in her own phlegm before her heart finally suddenly just stopped. Prior to that, the answers were just “more pain killers” and then morphine.
It was a long, drawn out six months that took a toll on her and all of us as well. We said goodbye to her multiple times at moments of peril, only for her to pull through, knowing that she’d never get back to a good quality of life. I wish we could have at least had the option of discussing assisted dying. She deserved better than the ending she had. We all do. We currently treat dogs with more respect than people when it comes to the end of our lives. It just seems so cruel.
My life insurance pays out if I’m 10days in a coma then death, I’ve had the chat with my beneficiaries that they should/must keep me alive for that time cos ill be furious if I lose that money (dozens of £1000s) which would help them. I’ll be dead by that stage, and most likely zooted on morphine beforehand.
On this topic, I would recommend the film ‘Johnny Got His Gun’ (1971).
It’s about a soldier who got blown up. Didn’t die, but ended up in a state where he was conscious, but blind, deaf, mute, and with no limbs. No company but his own thoughts and memories, completely cut off from the world.
Anyone familiar with Metallica knows the film well, because the song ‘One’ (1988) follows the film’s plot and features clips of it throughout the music video.
I can understand a doctor’s reluctance to assist with suicide due to perhaps a fear of being sued by the family or just due to the oath they took and their inability to square that with assisted suicide.
For that reason I believe that a right to die should be protected that allows people to procure an effective means to end their own life, on their own terms, without needing to involve another person or facing government interference.
Would some form of “Do not resuscitate” card be effective or would the familiy’s wishes override this? I’m almost 80 & saw both my parents deaths pointlessly extended so this touches a chord in me.