Choosing To End Your Life - A Discussion

I have debated about whether or not to bring up this subject. But with the huge publicity surrounding Dr. Jack Kevorkian perhaps this is a timely topic. I am hoping it will spark some good and polite discourse and dialogue. This article is intended to make you think and contemplate a bit. I am in no way condoning suicide or the use of Dr. Kevorkian's or anyone else's services. I fully believe that one has the right to personal choice.

I have said on more than one occasion, that if I were diagnosed with AD, I would just end my life before I lost the ability to think for myself. I think of the possibility of losing who I am, losing control of my mind and body and it frightens me.

I think about how it would be for my family to have to take care of me. Alzheimer's doesn't just belong to the sufferer, it belongs to the whole family.

But then, I think about what it would do to my family if I took my own life. Perhaps they would understand; perhaps they would be devastated.

This is a very controversial topic but one that should be addressed.

There have been several cases in the news recently about husbands who have ended their wives' suffering by helping them to die. Some have handled it poorly, while others gladly did what they felt was best and were willing to face the consequences of their actions.

Let's face facts. It is a very common practice and has been for years for physicians to help their patients die. They don't talk about it, but it goes on every day. A little more morphine, respirations are suppressed, the patient passes. Not controversial, not illegal, just a doctor helping someone in pain.

What would I do if my loved one was diagnosed and wanted to die before he lost the ability to recognize me, his children, the world around him? Would I help him? As a nurse, I am bound to do no harm. But is it harm to help end the mental anguish and potential devastating progress of Alzheimer's?

Putting religious beliefs aside for the purposes of this discussion, ask yourself, what would you do if you were told that you have an incurable disease which will rob you of your memory, your ability to comprehend the world around you, the ability to care for yourself, and eventually make you bedridden, dependent upon feeding tubes only to eventually die of pneumonia?

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