PROLOGUE
You are going to die.
It’s as simple as that. We are born, we live while we can, and then we die. So why do we make such a big deal out of it when we hear someone else say it? We hear all of this sappy and emotional crap where people are pushed and ‘inspired’ to try to cure these causes of death, from disease to the loss of blood or pretty much any other natural or unnatural diagnosis one could look down upon with the eyes of pity-all for what? We’d only extend our lives a little longer to eventually face the ending chapter of our story when we’ve become more bound to the lives we’ve lived. We can’t avoid death, no matter how fondly we think of our lives, it’s just a fact we all have to face.
‘What do you say?’
‘What do you do?’
‘What can you say and do?’
Who cares! Here’s an idea, just die already. Most of us just choose either to wallow in our own misery as we so apparently loose everything we’ve ever cared about like we expected to remain alive forever. Meanwhile I have accepted my death to this point, I am an old soul but I have accepted this fact long before now, I believe it was when I faced my younger years-my early thirties in fact, a realistic time of my life where this very fact became as clear as
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She understands, she knows somehow, what it’s like and all-and she’s accepted it too...well, at the very least she has accepted it enough to look me directly in the eye without so much as saying what is really on her mind. And in all honesty I appreciate her, though I show it in the most peculiar ways no doubt, how I’d push her more than I do the rest-but without a doubt I do appreciate her. If I didn’t I wouldn’t even be writing this to you. So...here it
The patient might just be waiting for the disease they have caught to kill them, but it does not always go so quickly . ¨Ending a patient's life by injection, with the added solace that it will be quick and painless, is much easier than this constant physical and emotional care¨ (Ezekiel Emanuel, 1997, p. 75). If a patient is terminally ill and will not get better, it allows them to end the suffering. If the physician has to keep a constant eye on the patient and they need constant care and the patient is not getting better, the option is there if they want to end all of it they can. Sometimes dealing with all of the physical care like medications and not being able to live completely normal with a disease is hard. It can get extremely hard and stressful that all the patients can think about doing is ending it, this alternative gives the patient a painless option. According to Somerville (2009), ¨… respect for people's rights to autonomy and self determination means everyone has a right to die at a time of their choosing¨ ( p.4). The patient deserves to choose whether they want to keep fighting or if they cannot go any farther. The patient should not have to push through a fight they have been fighting and know they cannot win. According to Kevorkian ¨the patient decides when it's best to go.¨ Nobody tells the patient when they have to end their lives, they understand their body and know
The thought of death is a scary one. However the scarier thought is “living” a life in pain and suffering from an incurable and terminal disease such as cancer or Alzheimer’s. Imagine your grandparent has recently been diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung cancer. Now the doctor will list off all the possible treatments and in your heart you want your grandparent to try everything to fight for their life. After hearing the doctor give the terrible news, your grandparent ask the doctor about some options but also mentions assisted death. Your mind floods with memories and arguments against it. Your grandparent explains how they have lived a full life, doesn’t want to put the family in debt from the medical bills along with the inevitable cost of a funeral and have
Anyone can be diagnosed with a terminal illness. It doesn’t matter how healthy you are, who you are, or what you do. Some terminal illnesses you can prevent by avoiding unhealthy habits, eating healthily, exercising regularly and keeping up with vaccinations. However some terminally ill people cannot be helped, their diseases cannot be cured and the only thing possible to help them, besides providing pain relieving medication, is to make them as comfortable as possible while enduring their condition. Many times the pharmaceuticals do not provide the desired pain escape, and cause patients to seek immediate relief in methods such as euthanasia. Euthanasia is the practice of deliberately ending a life in order to alleviate pain and suffering, but is deemed controversial because many various religions believe that their creators are the only ones that should decide when their life’s journey should reach its end. Euthanasia is performed by medical doctors or physicians and is the administration of a fatal dose of a suitable drug to the patient on his or her express request. Although the majority of American states oppose euthanasia, the practice would result in more good as opposed to harm. The patient who is receiving the euthanizing medication would be able to proactively choose their pursuit of happiness, alleviate themselves from all of the built up pain and suffering, relieve the burden they may feel they are upon their family, and die with dignity, which is the most ethical option for vegetative state and terminally ill patients. Euthanasia should remain an alternative to living a slow and painful life for those who are terminally ill, in a vegetative state or would like to end their life with dignity. In addition, t...
First, discussions about end-of-life circumstances are unpleasant, hard, and often awkward. Instead, people tend to focus on the less probable circumstance of a treatment or cure. When confronted with giving the prognosis of terminal illness to a patient, Gawande states, “discussing a fantasy was easier- less emotional, less explosive, less prone to misunderstanding- than discussing what was happening before my eyes” (Gawande 169). Even as a medical professional, Gawande struggles with conversations about death and would rather focus on hopeful, yet less probable outcomes. Because of societal constructions and natural human response, the topic of death is avoided when possible, even if the subject of digression (i.e. experimental treatment or cure) is very unlikely to
Death is a concept that people find hard to accept. You keep asking yourself “what if” as if it’s going to make your loved one come back. “What if I had been there? What if someone had talked him out of it? What if…?” You always ask yourself these questions, but never get an answer. I find myself still asking these questions even though I know they will never be answered. Death takes the ones we love the most too soon. Unfortunately, I know this feeling all too well.
Death is part of the circle of life and it's the end of your time on earth; the end of your time with your family and loved ones. Nobody wants to die, leaving their family and missing the good times your loved ones will have once you pass on. In the Mercury Reader, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross “On the Fear of Death” and Joan Didion “Afterlife” from The Year of Magical Thinking” both share common theses on death and grieving. Didion and Kübler-Ross both explain grieving and dealing with death. Steve Jobs commencement speech for Stanford’s graduation ceremony and through personal experience jumps further into death and how I feel about it. Your time is on earth is limited one day you will die and there are many ways of grieving at the death of a loved one. I believe that the fear of death and the death of a loved one will hold you back from living your own life and the fear of your own death is selfish.
This is the inevitable truth which some contemplate every day. Death for many is something they
... Everyone will eventually face death in their life, but some do not want to accept it. We should all live our lives with happiness, ignoring the thought of death because we should worry about the present and not what the future will bring us.
Despite it’s necessity, death is a very bleak and hopeless storm cloud looming in the distance. Nobody can escape the oncoming rain that is the life cycle. It can be depressing to think that no matter how good of a life one lives; everyone ends up dying sooner or later.
In BJ Millers TedTalk, “What Really Matters at the End of Life?” BJ Miller discusses on how we think on death and honor life. He speaks to the audience about how for the most people the scariest thing about death is not death itself, it is actually dying or suffering. The targeted audience is everyone in the world, because eventually everyone is going to die and everyone thinks about death. BJ 3 has big points in the article saying, Distinction between necessary and unnecessary suffering. Also by having a little ritual that helps with this shift in perspective. Another point is to lift and set our sights on well-being. We need to lift our sights, to set our sights on well-being, so that life and health and healthcare can become about making life more wonderful, rather than just less horrible.
Even though dying is a natural part of existence, American culture is unique in the extent to which death is viewed as a taboo topic. Rather than having open discussions, we tend to view death as a feared enemy that can and should be defeated by modern medicine and machines. Our language reflects this battle mentality, we say that people "combat" illnesses, or (in contrast) "fall victim" to them after a "long struggle." Euphemistic language also gives us distance from our discomfort with death, (Grohol, 2013). People who die are "no longer with us", have "passed", gone "to meet their Maker", “bought the farm”, “kicked the bucket", and so on.
As it says in some parts of the article said by Maynard “people who are told they have a limited amount of time to live are afraid of life” meaning instead of going to live up to their full potential in life they may sit at home waiting for that date. Although some people may argue that choosing your own death is a bit crazy, they believe fighting and trying to cure the sickness is a right way to die. As it says in the article in in the end of paragraph 4 “to live with the disease and fight a noble fight, or to die before the disease kills us and have a noble death.” I believe a person does have a right to end their life if they are going through a tough sickness and do not want to feel the pain of it anymore. If the pain is that great you should be able to choose to end your life the way you want, not necessarily end it right then and there but to keep living and end it when you want to end it.
I loved her you know. I loved her, before, before she changed. Before everything went wrong. Before she killed herself. I’m pretty sure it was my fault too. If only I had been brave enough, like she was, but I guess that’s why people humiliated her. I guess that’s why she died; because I was a coward. I wish I hadn’t of been, she wouldn’t be in a grave if I had just had the courage. I loved her too. She didn’t know it, but I tried to hint at it. I guess she thought I was leading her on or something. I tried to tell her but every time I did attempt to, she would look up at me with those big brown eyes and I would melt and nothing would come out.
Death, a word, a pain, a feeling that can take many by storm others with ease. However, is there ever a right time to lose a loved one, or be an assistance, or doctor, and know that any day the patient you have been tending to will be ready to take their own life or worse you have to be the one to end their life? That is the question that most people try to avoid thinking about, discussing with loved ones, or having to make the discussion their self’s. Death use to be a natural action that took place for people of all ages, however with medicine not only perpetuated living but also perpetuated death. As time has changed natural death has become obsolete and death has been put into the hands of doctors, hospital administration, relatives, even
Nowadays it’s normal for people to curse at their life and wished that they weren’t into existence. No matter how much it is told by a person to another that life is waste and not worth living, tables turn, and when lying on the death bed if not having a knife stuck down into your ribs lying in an empty alley knowing it is time to leave the world, many will wish that they should have lived their life following the right path and would trade anything for every breath they take. You will not be...