Last night I proposed a hypothesis to my wife. I asked her if I were given six weeks to live, and with each passing day of those I had remaining, my pain increased and my presence of mind decreased exponentially, if she would give me an injection that would cause instant painless death for me, or if she would want to keep me around. She said that she would feel selfish, and want to keep me for as long as she could, though she was conflicted because of my increasing pain. She said that in any event it would be wrong to give me an injection that would kill me even though my mortality was eminent. I then changed the rules a little, just to see where she would break. I told her that the injection, rather than kill me instantaneously, would afford me three weeks of a healthy life full of strength and vitality, as opposed to daily decay, and that at the end of three weeks I would die painlessly. She quickly chose the preferable option of three healthy weeks vs. six deteriorating weeks. I laughed and said "I knew I could get you to kill me."
We all have an eminent date with our own mortality. Six weeks, or six decades, it makes no difference, we are all decaying. I see nothing wrong with a person making a choice for themselves with respect to how they live their life or how they die their death. My wife and I were exposed to this scenario last night, and we found a loving, warm compromise to a very dark situation. I am not a fan of suicide, but really, who the hell am I to tell someone else what to do with their life?
We all have an eminent date with our own mortality. Six weeks, or six decades, it makes no difference, we are all decaying. I see nothing wrong with a person making a choice for themselves with respect to how they live their life or how they die their death. My wife and I were exposed to this scenario last night, and we found a loving, warm compromise to a very dark situation. I am not a fan of suicide, but really, who the hell am I to tell someone else what to do with their life?
