Dr. Goodwin said... that his health was deteriorating and he would soon end his life....
"The situation needs thought, it doesn't need hope," he said. "Hope is too ephemeral at that time."
March 13, 2012
"Peter Goodwin, a family physician who wrote and campaigned for Oregon's right-to-die law in the 1990s, died Sunday..."
"... after taking a cocktail of lethal drugs prescribed by his doctor, as allowed under the legislation he championed."
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19 comments:
Perhaps Oregon will become a Mecca for Selbtsmord.
"Assisted suicide is a deadly mix with the profit-driven health-care system."
From what I've seen the profit motive is all on the side of keeping the patient alive.
Let's hope he doesn't vote for Obama again!!
Luke lets take the incentive out of it by banning anyone who assits, helps or abets such a suicide from recieving any form of inheritance. We wouldn't want another kind, caring grifter like Schiavo's husband to get to inherit a settlement or trust fund orvlife insurance policy. Lets keep pure by getting the money outbof the picture.
I favor a right to suicide for someone terminally ill, but I'm concerned about the familial and societal pressure that may be felt by the person in order to save money and suffering. The more common and legal the practice - the more a person may feel obligated to cut it short. The drawn out costs and suffering are real concerns and would be part of my justification for doing it personally, but I would want people to feel they have every right to last as long as they can,...or do I.
What if it becomes common to extend one's life indefinitely without improving quality of life for a bed-ridden dying person? That could become a real disaster for families and society. Perhaps social pressure IS the best way to circumvent the horror of misdirected technology. After all, we are designed to die at some point.
madashell,
That's funny, but I honestly would not bet against it.
I'm sure all the people who were offered an assisted suicide pamphlet rather than treatment think he got off too easy.
"We wouldn't want another kind, caring grifter like Schiavo's husband...."
How casually and callously you slander someone who was in a situation you were not.
How casually and callously you slander someone who was in a situation you were not.
says the guy who probably called his own mother a war criminal
but I'm concerned about the familial and societal pressure that may be felt by the person in order to save money and suffering
I can tell you from day to day clinical experiences that these pressures work in both directions.
I'm definitely no fan of assisted suicide.
But I've personally experienced the desire for it as regards a family member.
"Hope is too ephemeral at that time."
Nice culture of death ya got there, partner.
I have seen someone die in a hospice after a long, losing battle with cancer. The suffering was as protracted as it was futile and unnecessary. There's a point at which the patient should be able to say enough already. This option should be available. "Assisted suicide" is the wrong name. Perhaps "cessation of moribundity" or some such term would make it more acceptable.
Cubanbob suggests we "take the incentive out of it by banning anyone who assists, helps or abets such a suicide from receiving any form of inheritance."
Perhaps the dying person should be required to sign a directive expressing their wishes far ahead of time, similar to the medical power of attorney they must sign today when they want to make sure they are not going to be put on life-support (feeding tubes, ventilators) when there is no chance of recovery?
Inheritances are an important consideration not just to the children but often from the parents' point of view as well. It's a way one generation expresses it's love for the next.
Of course where love is lacking no document need be signed.
By all means, let's change the term because reality is icky. Is there no social ill that cannot be solved by massaging the language? Someday we'll need a euphemism for "euphemism."
I've always thought it kind of messed up that suicide is illegal. What kind of nanny-state gov't says you don't own the right to cease your own existence?
Suicide in order to avoid a painful and inevitable death is not suicide. It's not a way of avoiding life, rather it is a way of accepting death. Manure serves a different purpose than bullshit and is not a eupemism for bullshit.
Seriously, William. I was both impressed and dismayed by your last post. Impressed because you made an argument in favor of suicide in a certain instance. Dismayed because you still want to play word games. Its suicide. Own it. Defend it.Make arguments for it. Don't hide behind making it acceptable (your term) by changing the language. BTW, all death is inevitable.
The end of life care forms in Oregon are detailed and helpful to those who want to have some control over how their life ends. It specifies just what measures should or should not be taken, and for those who are in terminal pain, it is possible to arrange the death that Peter Goodwin chose. Modern medicine can keep us alive in an almost vegetative state-- there is nothing natural about that.
I have seen someone die in a hospice after a long, losing battle with cancer. The suffering was as protracted as it was futile and unnecessary. There's a point at which the patient should be able to say enough already. This option should be available
Exactly. My father and I had such a deal - he didn't want to waste away in pain in a hospital. [Un]fortunately[?], his cancer came out of remission too quickly for us to make arrangements. He lasted about a week, in great pain, but long enough to feel he put up a fight without suffering *too* much.
His law partner was a different story. He saw what my father had gone through with the chemo. Three months after being diagnosed with cancer he put a gun in his mouth.
I don't blame him. And I think we should all have the Liberty to avoid futile suffering and financial expense. I'd rather my kdis use that money as a downpayment on their first house or a college fund for the grandkids.
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