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People manage to kill themselves every day. Why would you need help?
Because I don't want to make any mistakes or chicken out. If I knew a really easy, foolproof way to do it like, take these five pills with a shot of vodka and you're dead, then I'd be fine with that.
If people have regretted their decision not having kids, it would be because they thought perhaps they made the wrong decision not to raise a family but I've never heard anyone who was child-free say "I wish I had kids so I would have had someone to take care of me in my old age." If they did, they were deluding themselves.
It's not about having someone to take care of them. It's about being alone with no living relatives once they reach a certain age. I've already seen lots of my family and friends die off.
I agree it would "solve the problem," but I think it's also potentially a slippery slope; just my opinion. Even in other countries (and states), they won't "inject you" but help you to do the deed yourself. However, if you get to the point where you're enrolled in a hospice, simply say you have pain; you'll get all kinds of morphine. It's called the "double effect."
No, you're wrong. In Belgium and Netherlands a doctor will inject you if you choose this route, even people from foreign countries which is why people from all over the world are flocking to Belgium and Netherlands to be euthanized. It can also be done if you want to do it like the Swiss Dignitas organization and drink the lethal dose of pentobarbital. Dignitas doesn't allow injection but it also doesn't require a person to be terminally ill to use their services.
Luxembourg also has physician-assisted euthanasia but doesn't allow suicide tourism. Technically, neither does Belgium or Netherlands. What Belgium and Netherland law requires is for the person to form a relationship with their physician over a period of months in order to ask for him to inject them.
Me personally, I have no spiritual qualms or scruples about using the service. I've stated before I'd move there in a heartbeat if I received a terminal diagnosis because I don't want to die in agony like so many people do here in the US. It's gotten so bad here that it's difficult or impossible for a terminally ill person to get painkillers.
Cancer patient denied prescription pain killers at the pharmacy
Don't assume having children means you'll have a support system. They're not required to take care of you when you're old or ill. They will have their own lives and families. They may grow up and live on the other side of the country.
You're far better off coming up with a plan and discussing it with a wills & trusts attorney. Get it in writing! Figure out who to give POA to for a variety of things. Come up with a plan for pets, etc.
This is exactly what an elder orphan child free friend of mine did when she was dying of stage four Cancer. She had been estranged from her family for decades. Her friends helped plan her funeral services which were awesome, her attorney arranged her legal affairs and her hospice supplied her pain meds as she waited to leave this world.
It's not about having someone to take care of them. It's about being alone with no living relatives once they reach a certain age. I've already seen lots of my family and friends die off.
Again one cannot always depend upon family to take that role. If they do fine but no guarantees. I see it all the time where I live.
In some ways I do believe you reap what you sow...
My experience with large families... especially of the family farm variety and also through my working with many Asian Nurses are these families do step up to care for parents...
In my family... my Grandparents were never alone and it was my Grandmother's wish to pass in the same room where she had been born 85 years prior... and also where most of her kids were born.
I think passing as an elder orphan is more of an American phenomenon in my limited experience because as a property manager I have encountered a lot of them... all women with one exception... half never having children and those with maybe one or two... not a single big family in the bunch... and all widows outliving and missing their husbands for 20+ years...
1. If I'm dead, I don't care what happens to my body.
2. If I'm found unconscious, I would be taken to get medical assistance. No one else needs to be notified.
3. Most physical & mental decline doesn't happen overnight. I can look into setting up assisted living or nursing home care way before it's needed. I would have savings or LTC. If things start going downhill, I will move to ALF in a heartbeat. I don't care about staying at home.
4. After surgery, one can hire a home health aide to cover the time after surgery.
All having to do with $$$, that some do not have much of.
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