"Death with dignity," "Assisted suicide," "Euthanasia," "Right to die" - call it whatever you want but this is a topic that continues to resurface and you have to wonder if there will ever be any sort of a middle ground.
For it or against it, you have to feel for the people who find themselves in a circumstance where they consider the best option. I'm sure a million and one thoughts must go through their minds and I can't imagine it would be a decision that would be made lightly, especially if you are involving others.
It's not a topic that has affected me personally, at least not to date (and I will not speak for anyone else) but I have said, if I found myself in a situation where I was debilitated, suffering and there was no light at the end of the tunnel, I would think I would like to have the option to be peacefully "put to sleep" like we kindly do for our beloved pets. I would like to think that option was out there. There would be conditions and rules of course and it would happen under the care of a willing doctor who held the same beliefs but the point would be, that it would be an option.
I read an article yesterday that I guess is what got me thinking about all this AGAIN. It was about an elderly couple. They were both 86, married for over 60 years. Friends and family say there was no doubt the pair was still love birds. They were caring and inseparable, always arm in arm. Earlier this week they were found dead in a Paris hotel room. Still holding hands, they were discovered lying on the bed with plastic bags over their heads. There was a note. "The law forbids access to any lethal pills that would enable a soft death. Should my freedom be only limited by that of others? Who has the right to hinder a person with nobody in their charge, who is up to date with their taxes, having worked all these years and then as a volunteer... to end their life? Who has a right to force them to commit cruel practices when they want to leave this life serenely?"
The reasons for their choice weren't clear in the article but I can only speculate there must have been a physical health issue. To plan and execute something like this, they obviously had their wits about them. Their son, who was left behind, said they had made up their minds decades ago to do this "when the time was right."
It's sad though, to imagine this couple passing this way. What a terrible way to die.
It's a complicated, difficult topic but it's one that begs exploring. It's certainly not going to just fade away.
