Assisted suicide

I'm 70. I had triple bypass 8 years ago and have had a pacemaker ever since. Life is good. I'm a bit weak and sleep a lot, but that's ok. I generally feel pretty good. I have lots of things to do around the house to keep me busy, from landscaping to 11 cats to keeping SUPERWIFE happy. We have a jacuzzi that gets lots of use and a walk-in tub that is comforting too. I've taken up gunsmithing as a hobby and love to shoot competitively for fun. I get involved with local politics a bit and we take a lot of day trips to explore the new home state we adopted when I retired. One of the things that helps is that I don't have anything left to accomplish that I feel I must do. The military allowed me to live all over the world. I've Commanded troops, trained thousands of Soldiers, lived in a jungle, a desert, and the snows of Europe. Along the way I worked on high tech programs for the military and even NASA, taught high school Physics for a couple of years, seen Les Miserables from California to New York to London, and raised a son that attended Cornell and is now a lawyer in New York. Life is good. I don't fear death at all. But I worry about the day I might forget my name, or become an invalid. I'll never take my own life because that would piss God off just at a time when I need to be on His good side. I take comfort in knowing that I'm not in charge in this life. All I can do is the best I can and trust that a loving God will treat me well.

 

Good counter point to my post.

 

Well you know what they say about the road to hell.

 

May I enquire as to what precipitated the bypass at age 62?

 

I have no idea. As a career soldier I was in pretty good shape all my like. I would go years between doctor visits, and then only demanded by overseas deployments. I was just sitting at home one night, couldn't breathe, was taken to the ER and it was off to the races. No clue it was coming at all. And I've been fine ever since although I take lots of meds and have labs regularly now.

 

Personally, as long as someone has a verifiable terminal condition that creates legitimate suffering, I believe that physician-assisted suicide should be an option.

It seems to me that we should afford humans the same right to die with dignity that we offer to our pets. I see no value in going beyond the point where life has zero quality of life and only has true suffering to offer. There is nothing to be gained by the last few days, weeks, or months of horrible suffering, provided the person has made that determination for themselves.

 

No cholesterol issues? How was your diet? Did you get a lot of incidental exercise (walking etc)?

 

Since I almost never saw a doctor, I never really knew about cholesterol levels much. I did little exercise as a civilian, although decades in the Army kept me in shape and it took decades to undo that. I never walked except for the beach and such (I hate the outdoors after living in snow banks in Germany, climbing mountains everywhere, sleeping in a tree to avoid floods in a jungle, and crawling on my belly in a sandstorm in Iraq). I have always been a carnivore and remain so, although really greasy stuff like bacon is gone from my diet now. I'm still a rare red meat guy every day though.

 

I'm going to politely suggest that your diet and lack of exercise where the source of the trouble

 

DNR is a form of assisted suicide, IMO

The main difference, is it doesn't do anything to help extend life instead.
Where assisted suicide just assists in the outcome that DNR will do quicker. Taking a person out of pain and misery that much sooner.

 

I see the moral difference. Don't keep me alive it's different than let me kill my self

well it's about giving the patient control.

 

That was all 8 years ago and I'm fine now, so it really is of no concern what caused it. I do more monitoring of things now like labs every three months, but it no big deal. I don't spend a lot of time worrying about why I got the measles when I was a kid either.

 

Fair enough. Just go easy on the saturated fats, my friend!