Why Scott Adams Wished Death On His Dad 961
theodp writes " I hope my father dies soon," Dilbert creator Scott Adams wrote Saturday in a frustrated, angry, and poignant blog post. 'My father, age 86, is on the final approach to the long dirt nap (to use his own phrase). His mind is 98% gone, and all he has left is hours or possibly months of hideous unpleasantness in a hospital bed. I'll spare you the details, but it's as close to a living Hell as you can get. If my dad were a cat, we would have put him to sleep long ago. And not once would we have looked back and thought too soon. Because it's not too soon. It's far too late. His smallish estate pays about $8,000 per month to keep him in this state of perpetual suffering. Rarely has money been so poorly spent. I'd like to proactively end his suffering and let him go out with some dignity. But my government says I can't make that decision. Neither can his doctors. So, for all practical purposes, the government is torturing my father until he dies.' Adams also had harsh words for those who would oppose assisted suicide, 'I don't want anyone to misconstrue this post as satire or exaggeration. So I'll reiterate. If you have acted, or plan to act, in a way that keeps doctor-assisted suicide illegal, I see you as an accomplice in torturing my father, and perhaps me as well someday. I want you to die a painful death, and soon. And I'd be happy to tell you the same thing to your face.' His father passed a few hours after Adams wrote his screed. Challenged later by the SF Chronicle's Debra J. Saunders, an opponent of assisted suicide, Adams stood firm on his earlier words. So, can Adams succeed in convincing the U.S. where Dr. Jack failed?"
Re:Surrogate decisionmaking (Score:5, Informative)
I think you're making a lot of assumptions that are fundamentally false by projecting your imagination into a situation that is very different.
People with mental status that is sufficiently compromised to fall under the category I am describing are not really able to feel hunger the way we do. Actually, starvation due to decreased drive to eat is one of the primary mechanisms of end-stage dementia.
Also, appropriate end-of-life care within the palliative setting involves very aggressive pain control.
At no point should anyone in hospice care die in pain.
oregon has assistant suicide (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Should be legal, with caveat (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Well, isn't this nice (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Should be legal, with caveat (Score:5, Informative)
My wife died of ALS, and while we weren't bankrupted (thank heavens), the stress on both of us was hell.
She had a DNR, and a no-vent order written in advance. When she was admitted for pneumonia, she was lucky that her doctor understood that it was essentially over, and ordered a morphine drip.
She was essentially out of it, and confirming the DNR/no-vent was the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life. I still haven't completely forgiven myself.