If you had to end it all...

[Flashy]

because of terminal illness...(i have been seeing the HBO ads for the Jack Kervorkian biopic starring Al Pacino, so it has been gnawing at me)

and you decided that the pain/suffering was too much,

how would you do it?

obviously you would have to take in to consideration pain, probability of success/failure, impact on your family/friends/loved ones, in terms of their emotional wellbeing, not to mention legal status.

since it is only legal in 4 US states, (and possibly soon a 5th, California) and only 5 countries as a whole (Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, and i think Albania, with Luxembourg moving towards it) plus under consideration in other countries, there are obviously legal considerations.

i have tried to think of what i would do, if it ever came to that.

aside from a type of painless lethal injection like Kervorkian's machine
what else would you choose as a consideration?

would you just do it quietly like with the Kervorkian type of machine?

or would you go out in a blaze of glory? Like skydiving, without a chute.

obviously, most people would probably want to go out quietly, and i would too, but frankly, i think the rush of skydiving, the adrenaline, the speed of it, would be a pretty intense experience, and sort of a last, affirmation of the thrills life can bring (obviously i am not suggesting everyone do that, i am just saying)

obviously, the idea is ending suffering, so you would not want to say "i would like to walk in to a lion enclosure at the zoo"

and you would not want to botch things with a perhaps less than reliable way.

so? If euthanasia was the only solution, what would you choose?

(let me say, from a political standpoint, i firmly support the "right to die" position)

 

[xxuxu]

I wouldn't want to leave a mess for my loved ones. Once I researched the topic, and a good method is supposedly getting a helium tank, a hose and a garbage bag, and I think you can figure out the rest...

 

[Flashy]

I wouldn't want to leave a mess for my loved ones. Once I researched the topic, and a good method is supposedly getting a helium tank, a hose and a garbage bag, and I think you can figure out the rest...

well, what i mean is that your family would be consulted/involved ahead of time.
You would inform them of your plans, because obviously, it would probably be more of a mess for your loved ones if they walked in to your house and found with your head in a garbage bag, dead on the floor, no? :smile:
(what i mean is, okay it with them ahead of time, so they were not surprised by what you were planning to do, and they could be prepared to handle the difficulty of the situation)

 

[Mem]

but frankly, i think the rush of skydiving, the adrenaline, the speed of it, would be a pretty intense experience, and sort of a last, affirmation of the thrills life can bring (obviously i am not suggesting everyone do that, i am just saying)

You'd have to go to where they cliff dive and jump from there without a chute.

No one is going to let you exit a plane without a chute. You won't be able to take it off once in the air. If you don't pull the cord at a certain height it is automatic. All you could do is pull the emergency cord and hope they get tangled, but you would be slowed down and might survive.

I would go for booze and sedatives or pain killers that are lethal in large doses.

 

[D_Andreas Sukov]

Id go death by cop or something. I dont know. Dru fuelled sex Heart attack, but it would be hard to guerantee to happen. Because id like to die upon Ejaculation.

 

[Industrialsize]

Morphine

 

[deleted3782]

You'd have to go to where they cliff dive and jump from there without a chute.

This is true. It would suck to die and then get fined for illegal jumping.

 

[Skull Mason]

I'd take a whole bunch of LSD then figure it out

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

I wouldn't want to leave a mess for my loved ones. Once I researched the topic, and a good method is supposedly getting a helium tank, a hose and a garbage bag, and I think you can figure out the rest...

This way is supposed to be painless.
Going with hydrogen, a more plentiful and cheaper gas, might be more logical.
When you are unable to breathe normally, the great pain comes not from the lack of oxygen but from the buildup of carbon dioxide.
If you breathe something that contains no oxygen, you very quickly pass out and die ... but do so painlessly, because no carbon dioxide is building up.
That's why some people believe hydrogen asphyxiation would be a painless and therefore relatively humane way of executing people.
Things would quickly fade to black without pain, peacefully.

Of course, it's not all that practical at this time since no one offers it. You could jerrybuild a ways of doing it, I suppose.
If my physical situation had irretrievably deteriorated, I can see deciding to end it.
And I think anyone should have that right.
I would probably seek a pill or injection solution.

 

[Mem]

This is true. It would suck to die and then get fined for illegal jumping.

Yes, to add insult to injury.

 

[D_Raymond Handler]

For various reasons, I have thought about this a lot. I have saved up a really large supply of sleeping pills, but have no idea how many one would have to take, and how quickly (and PAINLESSLY) the end would come. Interesting discussion. Just think, people imagine all we care about are big dicks!

 

[Flashy]

You'd have to go to where they cliff dive and jump from there without a chute.

No one is going to let you exit a plane without a chute. You won't be able to take it off once in the air. If you don't pull the cord at a certain height it is automatic. All you could do is pull the emergency cord and hope they get tangled, but you would be slowed down and might survive.

I would go for booze and sedatives or pain killers that are lethal in large doses.

well, i am sure you could pay someone to take you up...if it is made legal to help someone die, then you could have them sign a release.

or, you could simply take flying lessons and just hop out the door...the pilot is not going to be able to stop you, now is he? :smile:

 

[D_Andreas Sukov]

I'd take a whole bunch of LSD then figure it out

Actually, i like your idea more.

 

[Not_Punny]

Death by chocolate.

 

[Tattooed Goddess]

Flashy, this is a question i thought very heavily about in March when i sat for 2 weeks at the bedside of my dying aunt. She spent two years trying to live with brain cancer and her body did not want to die. After she stroked a half dozen times one night we were told she had only hours to live, 24 hours at the most. She lived for 17 more days. No nutrition was given, do not rescussitate bracelet on her, and on pain medications to make her more comfortable. She was paralyzed from the neck down at that point and unconscious.

17 long days of watching her struggle to breathe once the pneumonia sat in. Fluids build up so quickly when you arent ambulatory. 17 long days of watching her mouth and eyes dry out once she went brain dead but still continued to function in her vital organs. She continued to baffle the medical professionals.

17 long days as more than 100 visitors came to her hospital room each day...by the end of it only several were left and able to withstand sitting there watching her wither away. She had lost more than 40 lbs and aged probably 30 years as her face got so hollow.

I watched the catheter fill with rusty looking urine, then blood and then liquified kidney tissue. Long after they said she would die from kidney failure at that point. I watched her strange breathing for so many hours all night long fearing i would miss her last breath and not be able to wake the others up to tell them of her passing. I didn't want her to die alone.

17 long days of miserable and unnecessary suffering after all of what she went through for 2 years to stay alive. I would have done anything to give her a shot and watch her go peacefully.

I would have not felt guilty about it either. She wouldnt have wanted to suffer like that. She took care of elderly folks and hated to watch them suffer at the end of life. She was only 58. I sat and watched her and told my mom that there is no reason why we can't make these things happen sooner when we know someone is actively dying.

It was not fair, she agonized even in her unconscious state being so uncomfortable. It was disappointing to wake up each day and find her still breathing. She deserved to go ahead and go. We could have had all of her family at her bedside in her dying moment while she was still able to speak at her final moments. She didn't die with dignity with a blood filled foley bag, a mouth hanging open struggling for each breath, having us swab her mouth and put drops in her partially open eyes. She deserved to die in peace and without pain, with those around her who loved her the most.

If we could pick that time and make that arrangement, death could be dealt with easier by us and our loved ones. I hope i am so lucky.

In the funeral home, as i was doing her eyebrows (she was a redhead and they really messed her brows up when they did her makeup) i leaned over and kissed her waxy face that felt nothing like the hot and sweaty face i had kissed just days before when i said goodbye to her...i felt like i kissed a doll as "she" was no longer there. I was happy to know she was no longer suffering and was where ever she was supposed to be now. I wanted that for her many days earlier.

 

[D_Navengil Nutroll]

i do not think i would ever off myself, but just do not hook me up to a bunch of machines and tubes to keep my otherwise dead ass alive. i don't have a will yet, but that stuff is sure going in there when i get around to it.

 

[Flashy]

Flashy, this is a question i thought very heavily about in March when i sat for 2 weeks at the bedside of my dying aunt. She spent two years trying to live with brain cancer and her body did not want to die. After she stroked a half dozen times one night we were told she had only hours to live, 24 hours at the most. She lived for 17 more days. No nutrition was given, do not rescussitate bracelet on her, and on pain medications to make her more comfortable. She was paralyzed from the neck down at that point and unconscious.

17 long days of watching her struggle to breathe once the pneumonia sat in. Fluids build up so quickly when you arent ambulatory. 17 long days of watching her mouth and eyes dry out once she went brain dead but still continued to function in her vital organs. She continued to baffle the medical professionals.

17 long days as more than 100 visitors came to her hospital room each day...by the end of it only several were left and able to withstand sitting there watching her wither away. She had lost more than 40 lbs and aged probably 30 years as her face got so hollow.

I watched the catheter fill with rusty looking urine, then blood and then liquified kidney tissue. Long after they said she would die from kidney failure at that point. I watched her strange breathing for so many hours all night long fearing i would miss her last breath and not be able to wake the others up to tell them of her passing. I didn't want her to die alone.

17 long days of miserable and unnecessary suffering after all of what she went through for 2 years to stay alive. I would have done anything to give her a shot and watch her go peacefully.

I would have not felt guilty about it either. She wouldnt have wanted to suffer like that. She took care of elderly folks and hated to watch them suffer at the end of life. She was only 58. I sat and watched her and told my mom that there is no reason why we can't make these things happen sooner when we know someone is actively dying.

It was not fair, she agonized even in her unconscious state being so uncomfortable. It was disappointing to wake up each day and find her still breathing. She deserved to go ahead and go. We could have had all of her family at her bedside in her dying moment while she was still able to speak at her final moments. She didn't die with dignity with a blood filled foley bag, a mouth hanging open struggling for each breath, having us swab her mouth and put drops in her partially open eyes. She deserved to die in peace and without pain, with those around her who loved her the most.

If we could pick that time and make that arrangement, death could be dealt with easier by us and our loved ones. I hope i am so lucky.

In the funeral home, as i was doing her eyebrows (she was a redhead and they really messed her brows up when they did her makeup) i leaned over and kissed her waxy face that felt nothing like the hot and sweaty face i had kissed just days before when i said goodbye to her...i felt like i kissed a doll as "she" was no longer there. I was happy to know she was no longer suffering and was where ever she was supposed to be now. I wanted that for her many days earlier.

a very sad story, red. a tragic one repeated all too often because of the politics of the right-to-die issue.

it is sad that her suffering could not have been eased, to avoid the pain she endured because of some long held beliefs in places taking precedence over the person's right to decide their own fate.

 

[Tattooed Goddess]

I agree, even as a semi-conservative I believe in your right to die.

 

[HazelGod]

Cryonics, baby. Wake me up when you can fix what's wrong.

 

[FuzzyKen]

This is a very difficult issue at best.

I come from a medical family and I have seen both easy and hard death within a vast number of friends, and family who left this world with the help of HIV.

If you are dealing with a medical condition or progression of a condition known for intense physical pain then the whole thing becomes even more difficult.

Though assisted death is not "legal" per se, in some ways it is done every day by increasing the rate of a morphine drip to the point that the drug begins to interfere with breathing. If there is a definite no code or DNR order then by the time that the end comes one will be totally unconscious at the time the end comes anyway. This has the advantage of not creating other legal problems at the end based on the type of death.

There are numerous drugs available OTC that will do it very easily, but the problem with most drug assisted death is that there is no way to absolutely positively guarantee the end will be free of suffering. I have always had mixed feelings regarding Jack Kevorkian. I do believe that there are times when we are far kinder to our pets than we are to other people. I do believe in a right to die with dignity rather than a prolonged tour through agony.

Of all of the deaths I have seen the toughest came from a condition called P.M.L. and that was one I still could not believe simply because of the way it went.

I think the best way is to find MD's (and there are more than a few) who are willing to walk this tightrope. There are many very compassionate MD's who will help you. The biggest thing here is to make certain that everything in the situation is controlled. For this kind of thing your best chances are if you are as the time grows near in a home hospice situation with friends and family all around you and with an MD who who will "do everything he/she can to ease your suffering" and will help you transition on.

I am personally against the more obvious methods because, by necessity and law depending on jurisdiction investigations around you by law enforcement are guaranteed. The outcome of those investigations can have a pronounced effect on others and then the viewpoint that counts is the one of the legal system and the representatives of that system in your area.