We can't choose when we're born. However, with luck, we can choose when we die. Of course, accidents and short-term illnesses void any chance of deciding our day of death. But long-term illnesses can be ended when we want in three of the United States and certain other places, including Zurich, Switzerland. I live in Oregon, one of the three states with a law that allows assisted suicide, a definite plus for living here, I think.
A recent Frontline report on PBS showed an American man who elected to escape his life of suffering by going to Zurich to participate in Dignitas, an assisted suicide program. He chose the day he wanted to die. His wife helped him to make arrangements because he was suffering from ALS, aka Lou Gehrig's Disease. He couldn't use his hands, he could barely speak and he was paralyzed.
Frontline showed the doctor who signed the prescription for the lethal cocktail and two men from Dignitas, one who would help to administer the drugs and one who made sure all went as promised by the organization. It was amazing to watch all of this unfold, everything from how attentive his wife was to the man's wishes, to how gentle the man who gave the drugs was, to how peaceful the surroundings were (although a bit seedy in a Zurich apartment house).
At the agreed-to time, the man was given a drug that would allow his stomach to receive the fatal drugs. Without that drug, he would simply throw up the stuff he needed to end his life. That drug and the next one were nasty, he said, and he asked for apple juice. He took the juice and drugs through a straw because his disease prevented him drinking from a glass. It took several attempts for him to get down all of the special cocktail, with sips of apple juice in between.
Finally, it was done. He asked for his choice of music to be played -- Beethoven's 9th Symphony. He had been told the drugs would put him to sleep within four or five minutes. It didn't take that long. After only a minute or two, his eyes started closing. Next his head fell toward his chest somewhat. But it was several minutes longer before the man who had given the drugs examined him for a pulse and said he was gone.
Swiss law dictates that a film be made of the entire episode to demonstrate that the man chose to end his life, that he turned off the switch to the machine that provided air to his lungs, that he said he wanted to die. The police were called immediately after and an investigation started, as prescribed by law. How deep such an investigation is can't be known, but it's my guess that a file is opened and closed quickly.
The main advantage the man had in going to Switzerland over being assisted in suicide in the U.S. is that here (at least in Oregon) such a person must be within six months of dying and there are fewer and fewer physicians who will sign off on such an effort. We have our wonderful pets "put to sleep" (don't you love that euphemism?) because we don't want to see them suffer. Yet we continue to see our loved ones, our family, ourselves, suffer without wanting the same. How much religion plays in such thinking is unknown, at least to me, but I would guess it figures in quite heavily. I can only hope that will change -- eventually.
One more reason to end it all by way of assisted suicide is to put a stop to paying horrendous fees for hospital stays, tests, and medications. End-of-life tactics can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not the millions, all for nothing, just a few more days, weeks or months of physical and/or mental suffering. Cremation is starting to push aside the traditional casket, in-ground burials. It's time for assisted suicide to replace the traditional procedures we have now, which is expensive and still terminal.
