The VE Bulletin Excerpts
'No price is too high to pay for
the privilege of owning yourself' Rudyard Kipling
Vol 18: No 1 March 2001
Bob Van Wagoner lives in Sarasota and writes
below about the joys and challenges of ageing.
Assistance at death - as at birth
Most of us had someone assisting when we were born ...
whether it was in a farmhouse, a doctor's office or a hospital. It's been
traditional for generations. So why can't we be assisted in dying?
Why call such help by a professional 'assisted suicide'?
In my Webster's New World Dictionary, Second Concise Edition, 'suicide'
is defined ' the intentional killing of one's self' and 'ruin of one's
interests through one's own actions.'
Asking for and receiving drugs to make our deaths more
pain and trauma free are far cries from what society commonly understands
of 'suicide.' The procedures, if determined by our rational approval or
request, are certainly a furtherance of our interest, not a 'ruining' of
it.
What is surprising is that so many forces want to ignore
or override our desires. It's insulting to assume we're willing to struggle
and rasp to our very last breath. Our medical condition is only one factor;
our minds and our spirits are another. Except in critical situations, we're
born when we're 'ready' and should be allowed to die when we're ready.
And helped, if needed. Why push us beyond what may be our natural time?
Each of us has some initial ideas of how we'd like to
go, whether we admit it or not. Bless those on whom such thoughts haven't
even surfaced - they will. When that end comes, I'll try to do it right;
cause as little trouble as possible; get assistance if I can. I'd like
to hear Glenn Miller's 'Moonlight Serenade' and Goodman's 'Let's Dance',
and finally of course, Hoagy's 'Stardust' in the background. Now maybe
if that keeps going and a few jump tunes kick in, I'll decide to hang on
a little longer!
But my call, please. It's my life.
(Highlights of an article from the
Sarasota Herald
Tribune, Florida January 4, 200l: page E3)
13 March 2001
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