December 5, 2011
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Killing Grandma
A woman in the UK with Lou Gehrig’s disease wants to get help killing herself.
But in the U.K. anyone helping her commit suicide would be charged and go to jail. Here is the link: Link
She has suffered from the disease for almost 20 years. (She should just offer to meet someone on craigslist about buying property).
Would you want to die if you were her?
Comments (49)
Pop a handful of Ambien, Grandma. You won’t even know what hit you.
Yeah, probably. She should just wheel around Detroit. She’s bound to get shot eventually.
Wait. This isn’t DearRicky we’re talking about, right?
I had a Professor who passed away from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Sad shit.
Being in Europe she has access to jurisdictions where euthanasia had been legalized.
suicide is so easy today. lazy bitch.
perhaps. bur (and i’m going to sound like such a reactionary) there’s the law of unintended consequences. What kind of situations is this going to spawn down the road. Will someone’s ‘rights” be to someone else’s detriment?
Yes, yes I would.
I don’t know.
If I was really in so much physical pain and couldn’t do things I loved.. And couldn’t go a single moment without any peace and things just kept getting worse. If my quality of life was so drastically reduced… Then yes, maybe I would want to die.
@phosphorickike - If she’s had it for 20 years, chances are pretty good that she’s paralyzed by now. Stephen Hawking has ALS too…though he’s the only person to survive forty years with it.
where is Kevorkian when you need him
I would probably want to die, but I’d never want someone to kill me and have that on their conscience.
For sure. Life ain’t worth a damn without working legs!
How selfish that we choose to keep people here against their wishes.
I know somebody who died from this. It’s a horrifying way to die. Yes, and if I were diagnosed with it, I’d kill myself before I was too helpless to do it myself.
I don’t know too much about the specifics of this disease and what it has done to this lady. I don’t think suicide in certain cases is unacceptable or unforgivable…I think that in cases like when you’re very old, in pain, on medications and machines, and you’re barely “living” anymore, it’s okay to want to end that. It’s not a life anymore. Being paralyzed on its own is not a good enough reason to kill yourself, I don’t think. There’s plenty of people who live full lives that way. But I think this disease involves more than just that.
Anyway, without knowing more (that is, not being too lazy to read the link you posted) I can’t really judge how I’d react. But if she really is miserable and in pain, maybe it’s better to end it. We let animals die peacefully rather than suffer, so why not do the same for people?
Living as a vegetable, or in constant pain would be no fun, but laws have to exist to protect life however miserable, otherwise murders would become a practice all over the place.
damned if you do and damned if you don’t
ugh… idk….
I’ve always wondered what I’d do if i had something like this, and compare it with human’s natural instinct to live and survive.
Emotional pain always seems to take precedence over physical injuries/diseases but I guess in this case the physical detriments bring about emotional trauma and stress
= I have no idea. I’d like to say I’d live, but of course I don’t have her diagnosis / illness/am not in her position
how incredibly sad
I wish all the time euthanasia was legal. Even for the mentally ill. If you lived it, you’d support it.
I think it’s funny when people think suicide is so easy. Someone said a handful of Ambien? Do you know how terrible of a death that would be? People don’t deserve to go like that, because they are sick. After you spend the last day of your life hallucinating your kidneys will cease to work and your liver will fail and THAT is a shitty way to die. There’s a reason why before lethal injection people are given barbiturates and zofran. Because even criminals shouldn’t die painfully, so are animals, before they are put to sleep. Why should people who are already suffering be forced to die in a shitty way.
I wish euthanasia was legal. She will eventually lose all of her ability to use her body and eventually she will drown in her own bodily fluids as her lungs fill up while not being able to move, if cardiac arrest doesn’t occur first. I don’t wish that disease on anyone and … I just wish there was some sort of merciful way to grant her wish.
if that’s what she wants for her own life then who the hell am i to say “no, don’t do it!” ive always said that if something happens to me where i lose my memory – just end my life . i don’t want to be remembered as a vegetable, so the answer to your question is yes, yes i would want to die .
I’ve had two friends who have died of ALS in a matter of months… how the hell does this old lady live for 20 years!? That being said, sad to hear. Such a terrible disease.
I don’t really know if I’d want to die if I were her. But, this is a deeply personal decision for anyone to make, and it might not be the same for everyone in a similar situation. Some people with debilitating and permanent diseases don’t want to die, others do. I think that if they do, they should be allowed to. I think it’s unfair to ask someone else to help you, though, unless it’s a doctor and you are living in a country or area where doctor-assisted suicide is legal. I just think it’s an unfair burden to put on other people while the person who is concerned is still of sound mind. In the States, we have the ability to stop life support, remove feeding tubes, breathing machines, etc. if we are listed as the next of kin or if we are by default the next of kin (like a spouse or a child of the patient) if the patient’s prognosis is bad and they are unable to make the decision for themselves. But, unless you live somewhere like Oregon where they have assisted suicide laws that allows doctor’s to assist a patient who is fully aware and wants to die, it’s not even allowed for a doctor to do it if the patient is of sound mind. I think it’s selfish, as well as mean, to force a person to live if they don’t want to. Especially, if they have thought it through. For people who are ill, this is not a decision that is made on a whim.
But, as for me, I am not in that situation so I can’t say what I would want to do. I would like the option to be open to me, though, even if I wouldn’t end up taking it. But…I would not ask anyone to help me, except perhaps a doctor.
It is impossible to answer that question till you live in that situation.
I think the better question is whether or not you would go against the law and save her from the suffering?
Either way my heart goes out to her and I hope she finds a way to enjoy the life she still has with Lou Gehrig’s
I hope she finds peace soon, or a really steep road to fly down. Sad that allowing euthanasia is so risky. Yes, those who are dying should be able to die with the dignity they choose, but then again how many people would be murdered under the guise of euthanasia? Sad. Hopefully some kind soul will slip her more of a pain med than she needs and a quick death awaits her.
She can go to Switzerland and get euthanised there. Dignitas is available to people from all over the world and it’s not illegal for her to go there.
What she suffers from is probably not her illness, but lack of palliative care and social integration of old and sick people.
I do not plan to throw a single second of this short time on this wonderful planet away on my own free will. When I’m old and sick I’ll annoy the crap out of people so they make my life more pleasant. I’ll watch the sun rise in the morning and the birds sing and all the other little stuff and I’ll be thankful I’m here. Maybe I’ll smoke some weed so I see funny things.
The only thing that makes me want to die is people who support this euthanasia shit. No one does it because they are nice. They want to GET RID of everyone who stands in their way. And being ill and helpless against that coldness….THAT is what I imagine horrible.
No idea.
I will showee after writing here. Then go to quikchek, buy. Very foggy out here in NJ. You guys already know I would like to be euthanized. I am going to have to die a slow and painful death. If I travel to europe, I can be granted this procedure? I want to improve the quality of my life. Where can I meet someone willing to conversate with me, I don’t have much practice in this area. I feel hopeless. I do not know what I want, nor do I know how to go about getting whatever it is I want. If I do nothing, I feel the frustration. It’s like being stuck in a hole. I am trying to think positively right now.
Ok, I give up. At this point I could use tips on the least painful way to commit suicide. I tried to live, but it is too hard to get anything good out of life. Food, movies, hobbies, can only do so much. There is nothing that can be done. Wait. I feel something. I feel energy, a thought has entered my head, its meaning is vague. I can do this. I can find a way. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I must keep searching, hoping, where there is a will there is a way. I must have patience. I have the power to change my life. All I need to do is stop thinking negatively.
I must be strong. I must fight. I could get therapy. Yes, that is what I am going to do. I am going to seek help. Life may be a dessert, I just need to find a cactus.
Uhm, YEAH. I go batshit crazy if I’m bedridden for more than a day. To be stuck in my body all day, every day and not be able to do anything? I’m glad I have a friend that’s becoming a pharmacist!!
well, 20yrs to be alive with that disease she should feel lucky cause I’ve seen people who are diagnosed and die jwithin years.
I’m a retired nurse and that is our job; to keep you alive whether you want to be or not
I think it’s awful that we execute criminals in a humane way, but don’t let terminally ill people have access to the same death.
My husband’s aunt just died this summer from Lou Gehrig’s disease. She decided to stop accepting nourishment (all she could have was formula at that point) when her husband threw out his back carrying her to the toilet.
I’m not saying that terminally ill people can’t have lives worth living, I am saying that they deserve to choose whether their life is still worth living. His aunt had to die by starvation, my great-uncle shot himself when he was terminally ill.
As to whether I would want to die at that point, I won’t know until and unless I get there.
Hard call. On the one hand Lou Gherig’s disease is a horrible thing to suffer from. On the other hand if she’s suffered from it for 20 years (fyi… the average survival time from diagnosis to death for Lou Gherig’s disease is 3 to 5 years) then she deserves a round of applause! If that photo is current then she looks DAMNED good for a 20-year sufferer of Lou Gherig’s! Most people with the disease can’t even breath on their own after a few years… let alone sit up straight in a wheelchair.
On the other hand, if she’s suffered from Lou Gherig’s for 20 years then she knows what she’s got, knows what her life is like and knows exactly what she wants to do (Lou Gherig’s does not affect the mind, btw… sufferers remain intellectually whole up to the point of death even if the rest of their bodies are paralyzed)… so I say give her what she wants. She knows her life and knows her decision. Let her go in peace.
My cousin has something similar, she can no longer walk, eat properly, see, speak, she can barely move any of her limbs. She wants to die and I cant and will never judge her for that!
My dad had Lou gehrig’s disease and I can tell you it’s incredibly painful to watch someone deteriorate the way they do with that disease. I don’t believe anyone should take their life no matter what the reason is behind it. But I understand why that woman would feel that way. It was when my father passed that we all felt a sense of peace in his not having to suffer with his ailments anymore.
Wow 20 yrs!!! So hard to say unless you know what she is going through. Some people have a fighters spirit and won’t submit to their illness others get tired of living with it. I would say I am a stubborn fighter and would fight the fight but again I don’t know the misery she has been through. Hope she can find a way to be at peace I’m sure the days seem long and difficult.
Hmmm….this is sad, and I wish I could give a good answer. I don’t know what I would do, for her or if I were her.
I doubt it but I am am not in her shoes to know. But if she really wants it bad I am sure someone will sell he some pills to go with the pills she already has .. wash it down with gin
I am not sure but I know the last time I was in the U.K. a couple of years ago they were having a huge national debate over physician assisted suicide because a young Rugby Star who suffered a spinal cord injury and was going to spend the rest of his life in his wheelchair did it and one of his colleagues…who was in the same situation “said hat no one should judge him based on the decision that he made because they were not in his shoes and were not in a wheelchair. And even though he disagreed…and understood why he made the decision and that it was his right too and there was vey long process involved before the decison was made.” So if she fights she might be able to have it done regardless of what anybody it is her decison but maybe the U.K. changed their laws since the last time I was there. The way it was a few years ago you had to have consultations with a doctor, a clergy member or a psychiatrist (if you were atheist) your family and a few other people before it was done. It was not an overnight decison it was a very long process with consultations woith a lot of people and it was done with your family surrounding if they wanted to be there. At least it was that way when this young Rugby player did it. And I think that is the way it should be. And their wishes should be honored. I don’t think I would chose that but who knows? I am not in her shoes but I feel the decison should be a careful one and she should have the last word after the process I described was fulfilled.
@trunthepaige - pills only work about 2 % of the time. Usually you pass out befoe you can take the fatal dose aor you puke them up or they pump your stomache. Suicide via the pill is very, very difficult. I know I hav been on pills for years and am always informed about this by the mental health community.
Jack had the right idea with assisted suicide.
@FallingSafely - Excellent comment and well said!!
I would. There is no greater despair than to know that the vehicle of your mind, your body, has become a prison and you are never able to escape.
With no quality of life, I would also want death.
How dare we as a society determine when and how a person meets her maker? You don’t dare dictate births – who gets to have children and who doesn’t. Why is death any different? I’ve known 60 year olds who are ready to go and 100 year olds who are not. Some with cancer want to get it over with, are at peace with death, others want to fight it all the way to the bitter end, choosing to die with their boots on. This is an adult woman of sound mind whose body has betrayed her. Who are we to demand that she continue living as a dead soul trapped inside a body that will not cooperate? With ALS, you gradually lose control of your muscles. In the end, you’re completely helpless, unable to move, unable to speak, unable to move into a more comfortable position, unable to swallow, and eventually . . . unable to breathe. This process will require round-the-clock nursing care to make sure you’re not laying in your own feces all day. It will exhaust your every financial resource. You want to leave a little something for your grandchildren? Nope, your life savings will go to pay CNA’s to feed you pureed beets and wipe your drool. And they better be good CNA’s otherwise, you’ll end up neglected and in all kinds of pain unable to even cry out for help.
Not everybody does this, but a great many people who are terminal can make peace with their fates. They can arrange their affairs, say goodbye, and be remembered as the vibrant living people they once were. They can leave their life savings for their families, not burden their children with round-the-clock care and ease into the afterlife peacefully, on their own terms.
Life’s beauty, that which we hold so dear, is not found in cellular metabolism and a beating heart. It’s so much deeper than that and that is what we should be protecting – not keeping blood moving through a lifeless body.
@AbnormalButSane - It is a bit strange that the one thing we ultimately own we have no right to just get rid of if we choose. That being said, if there was just a sign up list to just end it all, people would be killing themselves off long before ‘they’re time’ over temporary emotional hikes from break ups or whatever. But it seems she has had 20 years to think it over.
I would probably want to based on the pain but I think it would be selfish because I would be thinking about the family that I would leave behind. I am more about God’s plan for me and if it is my time then I would want to go naturally not by suicide.
i’m commenting for the 2 eprops
my uncle had this
it was really sad.
this is a horrible, horrible disease. soon it will progress to where she cant talk or move at all.
my uncle died by choking and he suffered a long time like her
i think, if she’s ready, she should be allowed. if life isn’t live-able, why live?
and for the people who made sarcastic remarks, you’re fools.
its not something that’s okay to joke about.
its really, really, sad and hard for the people who love them to watch this happen and know there’s nothing you can do.