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I am not afraid of death itself, but I am afraid of ending up in a nursing home or dying a long and painful death. (And, yes, I am in favor of Physician Assisted Suicide, as it is practiced the the state of Washington.)
If you've got the funds, you can always fly over to Switzerland to the most liberal suicide clinic in the world, Dignitas. There, you don't need 2 Dr.'s to determine whether or not you have X amount of time to live, which is the drawback to Physician-Assisted-Suicide in our country. If you end up a Quadriplegic, have a stroke that leaves you paralyzed on one side of your body, you do not qualify.
At Dignitas you may go there and just say you're tired of being depressed all the time, and even at 30YO, you pay the $5850, and your life ends! There should be Dignitas branches all over the world!
And please! No risky shoot yourself in the head suggestions and save yourself the $$!
Mostly I just love being alive. I'd really hate to not be that. Of course when I am not that, I probably won't care... about anything at all.
Well, I feel that way now, too. I'm 66, very healthy and active, financially solvent and my third grandchild is due any day now. I want to be there for my grandchildren; I love DS and DDIL but they're conservative and traditional and if one or more of their kids is an off-the-wall type like me they'll need a "mentor". (DS and DDIL are OK with my sharing opposing views with their kids when they're old enough and for that I'm grateful.) If, God forbid, I developed something that required aggressive treatment but had some (>30%) chance of success, I'd go for it. What I've told DS, though (he's in charge of the "pull-the-plug" decision) is that if there's a chance that I'll come out of aggressive treatment trapped in a bed for the rest of my life or without my mental faculties, they should bid me a graceful goodbye.
I look at my Dad, who's 88 and OK for an 88-year old but many systems are failing. I've learned more about his urinary tract than I ever want to know. He's developing age-related macular degeneration. His hearing is bad, even with high-priced hearing aids. He wears one of those pendants that alert a central office if you fall. Frankly, I hope he doesn't last long in that condition. The last letter my grandfather write me ended with "PS. There's such a thing as living too long". He died at 95 after outliving 2 wives and 2 of his 5 children.
Am not. Why? Because its inevitable. Nobody is spared.
Who knows about the future, but there might come a time where they are able to download/transfer your memory and consciousness (whatever that is!) to a humanoid (human-like robot) and you could in theory live forever or at least your memory will live forever!
If this science-fiction does become a reality, then you don't have to worry about getting sick or ill or viruses, well except for maybe computer viruses and no need to worry about eating or sleeping, just make sure someone is there to keep recharging your batteries.
I can see a future where real people (Homo sapiens sapiens) might live alongside their distant relatives from 100 to 200 to 300 years ago who are humanoids!
I do not want to die. I'm 70 and still feel like I'm 40. I was born late in life and witnessed so many deaths throughout my young life and now in my old life. Each was different most had a tremendous effect on me.
Saying I am not afraid of dying is like saying if you cut me I won’t bleed
As I said before (I think), dying and death are two separate issues. I should have made a MUCH clearer OP. Sorry about that. My fault.
Yeah, I'm not afraid of death but I've scared of dying -- not terrified -- but realistically scared. I've been a Hospice volunteer, volunteered in hospitals and nursing homes, worked on a med/surg ward in a hospital. That's enough to scare the H of you re your own dying. Dying is so painful in The US -- unnecessarily painful. I WELL remember that, not all that long ago, dying patients (patients who were truly dying) weren't given enough pain meds to relieve their pain because doctors were afraid of the patient(s) becoming addicted to painkillers. Ah, only in The US. And at the beginning of the opioid scare, I had shoulder surgery, spent the night in the hospital (where the doctors and nurses pretty much made me tough if out without pain meds), and then I was sent home with a total of three days of painkillers. I was in a GREAT amount of pain until I saw my surgeon again. Even then she didn't renew my pain meds. I hadn't had a pain med in four years, and I had NO history of abusing drugs -- but she didn't care.
I don't know if you remember, but I remember when we were told to take our painkillers because the energy we spent fighting pain could be better used to heal our injuries, illness, whatever. Wow, have things changed.
I'm not "afraid" in that sense. As I get older, I have more religious thoughts/questions.
Yes, absolutely! And that's quite normal! Everyone does (to a lesser or greater extent), especially as they get older.
I still think of all those wonderful older women in my Tai Chi class. They could have lied and said, "Oh no -- I never think of death." But they not only told the truth -- but they laughed out loud about it! I will never ever forgot them.
And the group had an atheist, a devout Quaker, church attendees, and I was an agnostic. So even though it wasn't a scientific survey by any means and even though it was a small group (12? Hmm, probably 10) -- I would say that it was at least somewhat representative of the general population.
And as a Hospice volunteer for 17 years, I can tell you that there was NOT ONE dying person I sat with who didn't have some religious questions or who didn't want to talk about God, etc., OR even their atheism.
There was a very famous Religion scholar named Huston Smith (he died not long ago after a distinguished career of many decades -- he was known around the world in the field of religion [NOT theology - he dealt with the origin and history of religion and the similarities and differences between major religions]), and he always used to say that "human beings must have a religion gene" because we deal with religious questions almost daily. Even if we're agnostics or atheists.
My ex-BF, who I'm still in contact with, is 82 and an Ombudsman in another very populous state/county. A few years ago when he started to volunteer, he was astounded that the vast majority of people in assisted-living/nursing homes were (and are) younger than he was
Only about a quarter of those living in assisted living are below 85. Probably a lot of the younger patients have acute life-threatening conditions, such as cancer, that end their stay much sooner.
If you are afraid, why are you? If you aren't, why aren't you? And (just an example): if tomorrow you were diagnosed with, say, Stage 4 lung cancer, to what lengths would you go to stay alive? Lastly, do you believe in Physician-Assisted Suicide?
If you are afraid, why are you?
I enjoy each day on this earth but no I'm not afraid because I personally believe I'll go to heaven when I die.
if tomorrow you were diagnosed with, say, Stage 4 lung cancer, to what lengths would you go to stay alive?
I will never do chemo, I've seen it kill a couple of people close to me.
Lastly, do you believe in Physician-Assisted Suicide?
For me personally.... no I do not but I feel it's not my place to decided that for others.
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