Suicide is My Right!!

[susandennis]

I 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.'

Comments

[pheon.livejournal.com]

Right on. Did you know that in many states attempted suicide is a crime? So make sure you do it correctly.

[susandennis]

Yeah that oops would be a mess in so many ways!

[pheon.livejournal.com]

From Cecil Adams' The Straight Dope (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040326.html):

...as of 1963, six states still considered attempted suicide a crime--North and South Dakota, Washington, New Jersey, Nevada, and Oklahoma.

So you need to watch it up there in Washington.

[susandennis]

criminey! that's just crazy. And what an odd collection of states.

[vasilatos]

I can't commit suicide because my brother died, so I have to outlive my mother (she can't take another kid dying). But that's personal, and not to reflect on anyone else's rights.

[susandennis]

You absolutely CAN commit suicide. You chose not to and that's all I'm saying. It is a choice. It is a right.

[vasilatos]

Yessireebob! You are correct. I choose not to, but that's my choice. If I change my mind, I change my mind, and that's *MY* decision. Nobody else's, certainly not the gummint's.

(I was mixing up personal rights and my personal decision re my family.)

[susandennis]

Exactly!

[phornax.livejournal.com]

You go, sista. [$deity] forbid that it should happen, but if it does, I expect nothing but the most glamourous self-offing from you.

[susandennis]

Thanks... Now I have another reason why I can't yet... no glam plan!

[geordie.livejournal.com]

I absolutely agree. I have a selection of effective off switches and if it ever came to it I'd say my goodbyes and use one. In many ways I'd rather go out that way than in a hospital somewhere with a needle in my arm. I'd much rather go with a single loud and very sudden bang than fade away with an arm full of drugs of questionable effectiveness. On the other hand I have no reason to want to do it right now and no intention of doing it under current circumstances, but I could forsee circumstances under which I would. No way am I going to die a prisoner in my own body with ALS or MS for example.

The state doesn't own me and can't force me to continue past my 'use by' date.

[victory-rose.livejournal.com]

I used to think that suicide was the lowest of low. Not saying it isn't anybody's right or anything, just that I thought it was an unforgiveable decision to make. I guess I was thinking of it from the perspective of those left behind. It may have played into it that since I don't/didn't believe in anything other than the current life we have, it was just wrong to end it prematurely. Or something.

I have sort of come around to the opposite view in the past few years. I still have a problem with viewing it as acceptable, I guess, and I (at least at the moment) can't see myself ever doing it, but I can sort of see it as an option, nonetheless.

But I've never looked at it from the point of view that it was anything other than a personal right.

And if I ever hear of you doing it, I reserve the right to say "oh what a shame". You're welcome to come and haunt me for it. ;-)

[annenahaymus.livejournal.com]

I feel so strongly about this. My father is an ex-Marine. He's a very proud man. He had a stroke and so his health not the best but for now his quality of life is good.

A friend of mine got on this subject and I was saying that a person has the right to go when they are ready. They shouldn't suffer or be forced to live hooked up to machines. She looked at me archly and asked, "Yes, but how would you feel if it were your father?" I think I shocked her when I looked her straight in the eye and said, "I'd help him."

I mean it. My father is a proud man. There is no way I'd have him reduced to a life of bedpans and being fed. If he decided he wanted to go, I'd do whatever I could to help him. I think it's horrible that we don't allow elderly and terminally ill people to die with peace and dignity.

[artisanal_xara]

Amen.

[pinkfish.livejournal.com]

oh what a shame.

There. Now I get to have susandennis at my parties, even after the webcam has gone dark.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

You're right on. Suicide should not be so widely regarded as a supreme act of cowardice.