Suicide is My Right!!
Sep. 27th, 2005 04:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisI was listening to NPR on the bus on the way home (and, yes, I managed to get my ample ass on the correct bus today, thank you very much...) and I heard a story about suicide among the elderly. The reporter assumed that everyone listening believed as she did that suicide is to be prevented at all costs.
Wrongo! If I am a mature individual (which I kind of think is a default in a lot of the elderly), I can make my own decisions and if one of them is to end my own life, what fucking business is it of hers or anyone else's????!!!!
Granted, if I had a bunch of people who depended on me then maybe it would be a little mean. As it is, with me personally, I would need to make sure Mom was taken care of and Jake and Betty, but after that, if I want to end it all, that's my prerogative. And anyone who tries to stop me is the one on the wrongo end of the stick.
Furthermore the story pointed out that most of the elderly people in Oregon (the story was about suicide in Oregon) who committed suicide were white males in their mid-60s with ill health. Who's right is it to say that they must live longer than they want to? Who's right is it for anyone to say that about me???
I am not thinking of killing myself any time soon. BUT if ever you hear that I did myself in, please know that I did it willingly, with thoughtfulness of purpose and after considering all the alternatives. It will be a marvelous act of my own choosing and I will come back and haunt the first person who says anything close to 'oh what a shame.'
Wrongo! If I am a mature individual (which I kind of think is a default in a lot of the elderly), I can make my own decisions and if one of them is to end my own life, what fucking business is it of hers or anyone else's????!!!!
Granted, if I had a bunch of people who depended on me then maybe it would be a little mean. As it is, with me personally, I would need to make sure Mom was taken care of and Jake and Betty, but after that, if I want to end it all, that's my prerogative. And anyone who tries to stop me is the one on the wrongo end of the stick.
Furthermore the story pointed out that most of the elderly people in Oregon (the story was about suicide in Oregon) who committed suicide were white males in their mid-60s with ill health. Who's right is it to say that they must live longer than they want to? Who's right is it for anyone to say that about me???
I am not thinking of killing myself any time soon. BUT if ever you hear that I did myself in, please know that I did it willingly, with thoughtfulness of purpose and after considering all the alternatives. It will be a marvelous act of my own choosing and I will come back and haunt the first person who says anything close to 'oh what a shame.'
