LEGALIZE ASSISTED SUICIDE

 MY CASE for ASSISTED SUICIDE

Let us imagine I am about to be hospitalized for kidney failure or (and, if I am lucky) liver cancer either of which will both be fatal.  I might choose to forego corrective surgery or treatment and donate my organs.  What remains is how I die.  I don’t want expensive medical treatment but I do want to die with dignity and I (or my proxy) decide when that will happen.

It is time to legalize assisted suicide in our country.

I have a loving family and right now would NOT choose to stop medical care and end my own life even if I developed a terminal disease.  I believe there is nothing that can convince a family member that I loved him or her if I choose to end my life. Choosing to end my life, I am dismissing their heartbreak by asserting it is not important to me to be around him/her any longer.  When I die, I won’t care any more but to those who survive me, my choosing to die is dismissive of their love for me and is abject betrayal. 

I face nothing fatal at this point.  I work strenuously to provide for my health and quality of life.  I have a solid ”live wish” but at my age my body is beginning to retire.  I have little to contribute to the economy, my family or the betterment of society. This is not a “poor me” or “I am useless” statement.  It is a matter of fact. I have done my “share.” I love life but might in different circumstances choose to give my organs to someone who potentially has much longer to live than do I.  Will I have a “live wish” down the road?  Who knows?  What if I am alone and could cause someone else to live by donating my organs earlier rather than later. I am an organ donor. I might choose that option.  As the feminazis like to say, “my body, my choice.” When I end my life really is my choice and in fact there is nothing anyone can do to stop me but legalized assisted suicide allows the chooser to indeed “die with dignity.”

I have much life to live and many people I hope to please and many I hope to anger so don’t watch the obituaries quite yet. I write these thoughts as I reflect on the similar thoughts my father expressed to me 25 years ago.

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