The right to die??

With all the contaversy (sp) over Terry Shiavo's death, I have just reminded Sean that in the event that I was ever so unfortunate to be in that position then I would want him to let me go, I wouldnt want to stay here in that way and have my family suffer seeing me like that

How do you feel about it? Do you believe only God has the right to decide when you die or should you have the right to decide???

It is such a complicated area, where others feelings seem to have priority over yours, I would certainly not like a death Terrys, all you can do is to make it abundantly clear to all concerned what your own wishes are. Then you have the governments slant on it which is normally what they think to be politically expedient at the time. I hope I never need to face it.

A very controversal topic i have made it clear if i end up in a situation were i cant do anything for myself i am to be let die ...but i would not deny anybody esle the right to keep living in a situation like that ,also when it is left to the next of kin to make the decision whether or not to let them die is hard enough without it becoming a media frenzy with opposing sides airing their views making it even harder instead of actually supporting and helping the next of kin no matter what decision they make be it live or die.
As to god we have had people starve themslves to death for political reasons and supported by the church whether the church agreed or not so they cant really deny anybody esle the right to die through health reasons or accidents

I want to go if I have no quality of life
and I have told my family that

Me too, i would expect the same treatment that i would chose for my dogs.

Having lost my grandmother last year (its the anniversary of her passing this week so feeling really cr@ppy) to Alzheimer's which is a terrible disease

Knowing the kind of woman she was before being diagnosed with Alzheimers, she really would not have wanted to come to the undignified end that she did infact it terrified her
She was an independant not so old woman, who was used to dressing herself, washing herself and feeding herself....she always said that Alzheimers was her biggest fear, as she was always completely with it.

When she was diagnosed we didnt have the heart to tell her that she had got it, we just had to sit by and watch her health and her mind just slip away, doing all we could to make her confortable
I know she was the kind of woman who would have wanted to die with dignity, and would have hated everything we did to help her such as the things mentioned above.
Seeing how she suffered, and how frustrated with life she got I know for a fact of she had been given the choice to die, she would have taken it :smt010

At the very end, she could not talk at all or see, she couldnt feed herself, she could not toilet herself :smt010
When an animal looses all those facalties we do the kindest thing for them and put them to sleep - When a human being goes through it we have to sit back and watch them suffer :smt010
And thats wrong.

tottally agree why do we allow humans to live like that but when it comes to an animal allow it to have a dignified death and put it out of its misery always makes me wonder my family know that if anything was to happen to me and i was unable to know or care let me go i have a cousin who was in a car accident 20years ago now and had serious brain damage he was such a grat guy full of fun now he is in a institution and does not really know what day it is its so sad

i would not want to live if i didnt even know i was alive if you get what i mean but its a selfish choice isnt it as if it 3was one of my family i wouldnt want to let them go as i would want to hold out for a medical miracle or cure to bring them back to me and so its different for me depending on what side i look at it from

I have told my children that if they were ever faced with something like this, to let me go with some dignity.

I know it's a very difficult position to put my children in, but this is what I want. I never want to be kept alive by machines. It's not something I'd want my kids to remember me by.

I do think we have a right to a dignified end should we choose, but in the Terri Shaivo case, she did NOT choose this, and the thing I can't accept is they let her starve to death. Not painlessly injected and slipped away, starved to death for almost 2 weeks. Unless it is stated, I feel it should be the same as organ donation, if not stated, then everything should be done for them.
Dawn.