RE: Do you have the courage to commit suicide in case if terminal disease?
April 10, 2018 at 10:13 am
(April 10, 2018 at 9:17 am)Macoleco Wrote: As someone who does not believe to be exempt of any fate, I have always wondered if I would have the courage to commit suicide in case of a horrible disease such as terminal cancer or Alzheimer.
Suicide has always been seen as a bad thing, but is it when it is done based on a rational decision and not depression for example? As Schopenhauer said, to decide if you live or not is one of the few rights humans have.
What would you do in such situation? Wouls you bear the pain?
Having seen weeks of pain in my mom's slow decline, I can only say that I hope I either don't see it coming, or am so doped up I am out of it.
I honestly cant say what I would do, because I am not in that situation right now. I do know in those weeks, my mom stuck around every moment she could to let me know she loved me, even if only by squeezing my thumb or nodding her head slightly or moving her eyes. She did squeeze my thumb that morning, but a about a couple hours before, she had that "death rattle" and wasn't even squeezing my thumb at that point. I looked at the nurse and asked her if there was anything they could do, and she said quite bluntly "It won't be much longer".
I have said that though, in my own case, I DO NOT WANT extra measures to keep me alive if terminal. It would depend on the level of pain I guess. I can only say having watched her slow decline, if she had asked for assisted suicide, and it was legal in our state, I would have fully supported her decision, just like I supported her decision to not have any more surgery to try to fix the re infection. Everything in me screamed, "Keep trying", but still, I also understood she was simply tired of hospitals and surgery and not having her full quality of health and independence.
I'd say for me, as long as I can tolerate the pain, even if I know I am going to die, I would want to stick around. But I do think humans should have the option when they say the pain is becoming too much, they should have the option of avoiding more pain.
