When To Die?
I guess death is never pretty.
Some people are luckier than others when it comes to death though. My father-in-law, who seemed to be in good health, walked into the bathroom and fell over dead. No hospitals, doctors, machines, expenses, just here one minute gone the next.
Others, like my father, suffer declining health for years. He was in and out of the hospital a dozen times. He had to talk the doctors into letting him out of the hospital to attend my step-mothers funeral only to be readmitted, near death, the next day. My step-mother suffered from cancer and underwent painful treatments for years before her death.
But one thing all these people had in common was their desire to live. Even when they were at their sickest point, they wanted to live.
I guess I have a little different view of life. I’ve always believed that when life becomes totally hopeless making the choice to end it might not be a bad thing.
I was saddened to read the story of former schoolteacher Chantal Sebire, 52 of Dijon, France. For most of her life Chantal was a normal looking, apparently healthy, woman. Then she developed a rare, and incurable, condition with the tongue twisting name esthesioneuroblastoma. That’s doctor talk for “nasty incurable tumor”.
The tumor invaded her nasal cavity and eventually deformed her face, causing her to lose her eyesight and the senses of smell and taste. She petitioned a French court to allow her the “right to die”. By that, I assume she meant the right to allow a doctor to administer a fatal dose of medication.
The Yahoo story notes, “French legislation adopted in 2005 allows families to request that life-support equipment for a terminally-ill patient be switched off, but does not allow a doctor to take action to end a patient’s life.”
The court rejected her request for euthanasia and Ms. Sebire “…said she would not appeal the decision and that she would find life-terminating drugs through other means.” Her body was found at her home in eastern France on March 19, two days after the court decision.
“`We can say that Mrs Sebire did not die of natural causes, as shown by the autopsy, but from absorbing a lethal dose of barbiturate,’ prosecutor Jean-Pierre Alacchi told reporters in the eastern city of Dijon.”
The article concludes with the observation that “Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are the only European Union countries that currently allow active euthanasia.”
Does it seem odd to you that the law allows your family to “unplug” you, but you can’t “unplug” yourself? Shouldn’t the decision to end your life be one of the most basic rights? Sure it can be argued that she did make this decision and carry it out, but she had to do it herself. What if she, being untrained, had not taken a lethal dose? Then her problems could have been compounded by ending up in a coma or paralyzed thereby losing even the ability to end her life herself.
Where do you stand on this? Should euthanasia be allowed in cases like this where there is no hope of cure? Should doctors be expected to participate in the process? Should it be the decision of the patient alone, or should family be involved? If you were faced with an illness of this magnitude would you want to be euthanized?