Colorado right-to-die legislation announced

Here in Colorado, if a person puts it in their Will that they want "the plug pulled" if they are a vegetable, then the family has no say in it. I do not remember all the particulars, but it is part of my will...I do not want my family to have to make that choice.

That being said, it is far different for a doctor to give someone the drugs that will hasten their demise, like Dr. Kevorkian did.

I would like the right to choose myself...and not have the doctors and medical community decide that I need to live at any cost, both financially and otherwise.

I do not know that I'd use that right...but I'd like it as an option.

homeagain wrote: READ THIS CLOSELY.....

nypost.com/2012/12/09/diary-of-an-intensive-care-nurse/

Do you know what "MOSLT"means,The document states CLEARLY and CONCISELY your
wishes for end of life...."Medical Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment",take it with you to hospitals,
doctors,any time you are in a "medical" situation...this document is a LEGAL directive to your doctors/nurses about how you wish to be treated medically.

PS, YOU are not the sole witness to a love one's death, I too, have had a FIL AND Stepfather cared for
by Hospice,they left this world in the comfort of their home.

PALLIATIVE CARE and Hospice AND Compassion and Care/AND The Final Exit are options that are
available to everyone,the LEGAL ability for a person to leave this world is the last obstacle in one's
last journey....I support this bill and applaud the organizations for having the will power to bring this
forward. (you MISunderstand ..YOU (the individual) has to be cognitive and able to request the meds,YOU then are the SOLE person to administer the meds...(pill in YOUR hand,YOUR hand holding the water glass(wine)YOUR actions downing the pill)... that allows you death with DIGNITY.

If you want to die, then stop eating, stop drinking. You will be dead in short order and it requires no one to commit an act of homicide on your behalf. All it takes is a little will power and a measure of courage to stand by that decision as your body shuts down.

Swallowing pills requires no courage. There is no dignity in swallowing a bunch of pills to end your life, only cowardice evidenced by your inability to face your own mortality. That's harsh, I know, but it is also the truth. Thus the proposed legislation can't give you dignity with your passing, it can only confirm that your character is weak. Legislation can't endow you in death with what you lacked in life.

PrintSmith wrote: If you want to die, then stop eating, stop drinking. You will be dead in short order and it requires no one to commit an act of homicide on your behalf. All it takes is a little will power and a measure of courage to stand by that decision as your body shuts down.

Swallowing pills requires no courage. There is no dignity in swallowing a bunch of pills to end your life, only cowardice evidenced by your inability to face your own mortality. That's harsh, I know, but it is also the truth. Thus the proposed legislation can't give you dignity with your passing, it can only confirm that your character is weak. Legislation can't endow you in death with what you lacked in life.

ACTUALLY, the "easy" death would be from exposure....(hypothermia). The Native Eskimo in the far, far North had a "rite" of releasing their elders onto an ice floe and allowing them to float adrift...to the great beyond.

Interesting that you have NOT commented on the ICU link and the atrocities that are described.

PrintSmith wrote: If you want to die, then stop eating, stop drinking. You will be dead in short order and it requires no one to commit an act of homicide on your behalf. All it takes is a little will power and a measure of courage to stand by that decision as your body shuts down.

Swallowing pills requires no courage. There is no dignity in swallowing a bunch of pills to end your life, only cowardice evidenced by your inability to face your own mortality. That's harsh, I know, but it is also the truth. Thus the proposed legislation can't give you dignity with your passing, it can only confirm that your character is weak. Legislation can't endow you in death with what you lacked in life.

I was going to stay out of this, but when you posted this drivel, I chose to pipe in.

Bottom line, what you've written here is offensive, pure and simple. Offensive.

If you know someone who's tried to commit suicide by swallowing pills, then you should know how offensive this is, not only to the person trying to end their own life by swallowing pills, but to every single person who knows them and the pain they suffer, be it physical, psychological, and/or emotional.

Offensive.

Truth is sometimes offensive Z. That doesn't mean that it shouldn't be said.

And yes, Z, I knew people who chose to do it. By pills, by hanging themselves, by shooting themselves, by driving their vehicle off a cliff. I've attended their funerals, I've grieved alongside those that were left behind.

Spare me your outrage, it's irrelevant to the discussion at hand. I know this touches a raw nerve with you, and I am sensitive to that reality. It touches a raw nerve with me as well, but that won't stop me from telling the unvarnished truth about suicide. There is no dignity in it, none at all. Making it legal for a physician to be a participant in a homicidal act won't alter that.

homeagain wrote: Interesting that you have NOT commented on the ICU link and the atrocities that are described.

It has no relevance to the discussion of allowing a physician to be an active participant in a homicidal act home, thus there is no call for me to comment on it and allow the tangent to the discussion of this subject matter.

PrintSmith wrote: Truth is sometimes offensive Z. That doesn't mean that it shouldn't be said.

And yes, Z, I knew people who chose to do it. By pills, by hanging themselves, by shooting themselves, by driving their vehicle off a cliff. I've attended their funerals, I've grieved alongside those that were left behind.

Spare me your outrage, it's irrelevant to the discussion at hand. I know this touches a raw nerve with you, and I am sensitive to that reality. It touches a raw nerve with me as well, but that won't stop me from telling the unvarnished truth about suicide. There is no dignity in it, none at all. Making it legal for a physician to be a participant in a homicidal act won't alter that.

Unvarnished truth is, in fact, offensive. Problem is, as with so much of the drivel you put out there, you twist it to suit your own ends, your own analogies, your own dystopian perspectives on anything and everything.

No, I won't spare you my outrage. You can spare me your own condescension. But I won't spare you my outrage. Because it is, in fact, relevant to the discussion at hand. You "knew" people who committed suicide. Did you live their lives with them leading up to that act?

No, I don't believe you are, in fact, sensitive to anything, much less to my reality in this regard. You've proven that many times over in other threads in which we've had discussions. Your offensive post didn't try to distinguish between popping pills to try and end one's life and physician assisted suicide.

I'll stick with my assertion: Offensive.

After reading these latest posts, I'm trying to figure out what exactly is "offensive". To me it just looks like differing opinions of the morality of assisted suicide. Maybe I missed something?

Rick wrote: After reading these latest posts, I'm trying to figure out what exactly is "offensive". To me it just looks like differing opinions of the morality of assisted suicide. Maybe I missed something?

Exactly Rick. But if you disagree with Z, you're OFFENSIVE!