Euthanasia

Have you heard about the story of the French woman who wanted to be euthanized? She was suffering from a painful, disfiguring, incurable form of cancer that caused facial tumors. The French government denied her request for assisted suicide two days before she was found dead. The article is here on cnn.com. According to the article, the cause of death is unclear.

What do you think? I don't have many details, but given what you know, would you consider assisted suicide?

In my opinion, quality of life would be shit due to the disfiguration, even without the pain. It is a fact that people are judged based on appearances, but for me that is not a reason to die.

The tumors caused the eyes to bulge, so I would guess she had vision issues. I don't think I would want to die because I was blind.

I would have to be in a lot of pain to truly want to die. It would have to literally be torturous. If I spent my entire waking life unable to think of anything else but the pain, then maybe I would consider death as an option.

There is the issue of money. I'm guessing I wouldn't be able to work which means no health insurance. It would be tough to be a financial burden. I think I would want to work with doctor's in a research capacity. I would be completely open to being a human test case to help future victims of the disease. Maybe I could work a deal to get free "treatment" if some of it was experimental.

The final decision point would be my daughter. I wouldn't want to miss any part of her life. So, as I sit her in my healthy, pain-free body, I'm going to say, nope I couldn't consider causing my own death to be an option. What can I say, death is BIG. No turning back. And not really my thing.

Now, what if it wasn't you, but if it was a friend of yours? Would you help them die?

It might not be the decision I would make, but if I felt she had really thought it through and that was her decision, I believe I would respect that. I wouldn't be able to actually do anything to cause her death to happen, but I wouldn't condemn her if she did something herself. I would carry out any post-mortem requests she had (i.e., helping her family, burial wishes, etc) and I would remember her respectfully.

It's an interesting decision to contemplate and I'm very grateful I don't have to (and hope I never do). As the saying goes, there but for the Grace of God go I.

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P.S. I think it's funny that they day after I post about possible not blogging, I decide to post twice in one day!