I know, I know. This thread will probably receive a ton of virtual thrown tomatoes...But I was just curious how you guys stood on the issue. And when I say suicide, I don't mean just an average depressed, fully healthy, emo kid pissed at mom and dad because they don't understand them.
I am refering to euthanasia, hemlock society, the right to end your life when you feel the suffering is too much to bare, etc.
The older I get, the more I 100% agree with this. Here is a true story:
I met a very strong CF role model when I was around 11 years old. He was awesome, he was a CF adult, he was someone I wanted to be. He was extremely smart, was way into physical activity, questioned doctors (like we all should), and generally fought and fought (tooth and nail) till he was in his 40's. We all saw him go down hill over time, to the point where his previous muscular build was gone and he looked like a concentration camp victim. His lung function whittled down to nothing at all. He developed heart failure, and a ton of other health problems that were symptomatic to him going down hill. Some of his very close friends, *PER HIS REQUEST*, all got 3 syringes of fluid. 2 were saline, 1 was a lethal dose of a drug. None of the friends knew who had what. They dispensed the drug into the patient *PER HIS REQUEST*, and he passed away. I stood vigil with him for a long period of time up to this point, and had to go home for some errands and being exhausted. I missed him leaving us, and one of the last things I was told when I got there and found out he was long gone "(name) Asked for you several times, and wanted to talk to you, but we couldn't reach you" (I was passed out after several days of being awake).
I have always been a supporter of Kevorkian. I am agnostic, but very spiritual. You will never be able to talk a Christian into the ideal that it's ok to take your life, I understand that (and this applies to some other religions). But I think this fundamental principle stems from those who created the religions, not wanting people to remove themselves from their faith, and no longer be a resource in whatever way, to that faith. As in, someone who kills them self, can no longer provide for the faith monetarily, provide for their dependent family, can no longer go out and recruit other prospect members for the faith, etc etc etc. It all makes perfect sense to me, why most major faiths view suicide as the "Unpardonable sin". Tell someone they will never be able to talk to god/see their relatives/burn forever in hades for a particular act if they do it, and they generally won't do it. Same thing goes for suicide bombers, but opposite, and in a rewarding nature.
So I ask, if you put all religious aspects aside (hard to do, but please try), why should someone who is capable of ending their life from whatever means, be expected to carry on in an extremely suffering capacity, slowly getting worse, hoping and praying for "God" to take their life? Applying this to CF, if you are at or near end stage, why should you have to deal with that existence for possibly several more years, in that level of misery? Why shouldn't you be able to request "being put to sleep". Why on earth, in our modern society, is suicide actually labeled as a "crime"? For the same reasons I gave before. Just like our society/economy, religion also wants us to be happy little consumers, that are preprogrammed to act a certain way, and are almost guaranteed not to act a certain way that would harm the status quo of.
The older I get, and the more I see myself go down hill (this last episode of cavity in the lung is a good example), the more I see the right to end my own life without others casting stigma upon me, as something that should be fought for. If this thing in my lung turned out to be aggressive lung cancer, and there was litterally no way at all I had .001% chance of fighting it off, and it was being ever more apparent this was the case (after giving a real effort to fight)...I would indeed kill myself, to avoid an undue horrible, slow, consumptive end.
I would also hope that most people with an I.Q. in double digits would be empathetic towards that need, and not judge me for choosing that avenue. Especially considering I had fought my entire life, never stopping, till that point. It's REAL easy for some healthy, 36 year old guy with many more years in front of him with a quality life, to condemn those who are the polar opposite. I don't want to turn this into some religious discussion, but it really makes me angry that in the year 2007, our "opiate for the masses" (amazingly accurate quote btw) still controls us to such a degree. Physical/racial slavery was eradicated in our emancipation proclamation...I think the next logical cleansing for the human race is obvious, and gravely needed for us to move on and evolve into a higher quality species. Lord knowns, we need all the help we can get to push us in that direction.
I am refering to euthanasia, hemlock society, the right to end your life when you feel the suffering is too much to bare, etc.
The older I get, the more I 100% agree with this. Here is a true story:
I met a very strong CF role model when I was around 11 years old. He was awesome, he was a CF adult, he was someone I wanted to be. He was extremely smart, was way into physical activity, questioned doctors (like we all should), and generally fought and fought (tooth and nail) till he was in his 40's. We all saw him go down hill over time, to the point where his previous muscular build was gone and he looked like a concentration camp victim. His lung function whittled down to nothing at all. He developed heart failure, and a ton of other health problems that were symptomatic to him going down hill. Some of his very close friends, *PER HIS REQUEST*, all got 3 syringes of fluid. 2 were saline, 1 was a lethal dose of a drug. None of the friends knew who had what. They dispensed the drug into the patient *PER HIS REQUEST*, and he passed away. I stood vigil with him for a long period of time up to this point, and had to go home for some errands and being exhausted. I missed him leaving us, and one of the last things I was told when I got there and found out he was long gone "(name) Asked for you several times, and wanted to talk to you, but we couldn't reach you" (I was passed out after several days of being awake).
I have always been a supporter of Kevorkian. I am agnostic, but very spiritual. You will never be able to talk a Christian into the ideal that it's ok to take your life, I understand that (and this applies to some other religions). But I think this fundamental principle stems from those who created the religions, not wanting people to remove themselves from their faith, and no longer be a resource in whatever way, to that faith. As in, someone who kills them self, can no longer provide for the faith monetarily, provide for their dependent family, can no longer go out and recruit other prospect members for the faith, etc etc etc. It all makes perfect sense to me, why most major faiths view suicide as the "Unpardonable sin". Tell someone they will never be able to talk to god/see their relatives/burn forever in hades for a particular act if they do it, and they generally won't do it. Same thing goes for suicide bombers, but opposite, and in a rewarding nature.
So I ask, if you put all religious aspects aside (hard to do, but please try), why should someone who is capable of ending their life from whatever means, be expected to carry on in an extremely suffering capacity, slowly getting worse, hoping and praying for "God" to take their life? Applying this to CF, if you are at or near end stage, why should you have to deal with that existence for possibly several more years, in that level of misery? Why shouldn't you be able to request "being put to sleep". Why on earth, in our modern society, is suicide actually labeled as a "crime"? For the same reasons I gave before. Just like our society/economy, religion also wants us to be happy little consumers, that are preprogrammed to act a certain way, and are almost guaranteed not to act a certain way that would harm the status quo of.
The older I get, and the more I see myself go down hill (this last episode of cavity in the lung is a good example), the more I see the right to end my own life without others casting stigma upon me, as something that should be fought for. If this thing in my lung turned out to be aggressive lung cancer, and there was litterally no way at all I had .001% chance of fighting it off, and it was being ever more apparent this was the case (after giving a real effort to fight)...I would indeed kill myself, to avoid an undue horrible, slow, consumptive end.
I would also hope that most people with an I.Q. in double digits would be empathetic towards that need, and not judge me for choosing that avenue. Especially considering I had fought my entire life, never stopping, till that point. It's REAL easy for some healthy, 36 year old guy with many more years in front of him with a quality life, to condemn those who are the polar opposite. I don't want to turn this into some religious discussion, but it really makes me angry that in the year 2007, our "opiate for the masses" (amazingly accurate quote btw) still controls us to such a degree. Physical/racial slavery was eradicated in our emancipation proclamation...I think the next logical cleansing for the human race is obvious, and gravely needed for us to move on and evolve into a higher quality species. Lord knowns, we need all the help we can get to push us in that direction.