This is not a question, it is a call to action. Having spent my entire life taking care of physically and mentally ill adults who openly and frequently admit they want to die (even when I was a child), I would choose death immediately if physician-assisted suicide were available in my country. The very sick and highly-dependent elderly are, for the most part, kept alive at great physical, emotional, and obviously financial cost to most of us merely for profit by pharmaceutical companies and institutions. Massive industries profit from pain and suffering with little incentive to permanently resolve any type of dependency, whether drugs or services. "Oh dear, what about my religious beliefs?" Apparently it is a sin to help people die: you are robbing your God of the vicious entertainment of watching the sick slowly disintegrate as mindless zombies or suffer for years in excruciating pain until their bodies give out. The concept of a judgmental God is a lie. Organized religion only exists as a means of control. WAKE UP AND TAKE YOUR LIVES BACK -- or end them. This is pointless. "What about my children?" Congratulations for forcing more life into this endless exploitative circle jerk. I hope your kids enjoy being stuck in a cycle of desperation as wage slaves OR as exploitative business leaders OR as masters of paper pushing and hopelessly competing with the Joneses even if they won't admit it. All life is pointless. This is pointless. Choke on those dirty adult diapers, diehards! A walk in a pretty park or a funny joke or cute puppy does not make up for the endlessly excruciating day-to-day nightmare of human society.
He rode the elevator down to his storage unit, pulled out his 357 and stuck it in his mouth.
The head caregiver on duty resigned.
The facilities worker they sent, who found the guy with no head, went on a two week vacation. Two days after he returned, he ended up hurt on a major workers comp.
The point is that I think this guy was fully aware of what he wanted. He could just do it himself is all.
For the rest of us, all we can do is express and document our wishes and hope that those we trust will follow through. Without something to rely on, caregivers default to trying to take good care or their charges. If you only want to be kept comfortable if you get dementia, be specific: no CPR, no pacemaker, no pneumonia vaccine, limits on encouragement to eat, limited medications, …
Secondly, yeah it's sad to watch people suffer and lay in their own feces etc. but assisted suicide is not legal in most places and even if it were I believe a person has to be of sound mind before they could make that decision. Most people who are still of sound mind probably don't feel they need to make that decision and by the time they aren't of sound mind it's too late. So that blows that theory.
Thirdly, even if I could have ended my mom's pain it's not legal to do so.
So, good for you for spewing out your negativity but nothing you said really makes any difference in the bigger scheme so good luck to you!
Fundamentally, it’s only available to people who are able to consent, and have a disease which is terminal in the reasonably short term. The bigger issue is the reality of the old sarcastic verse “Thou shalt not kill, but need not strive officiously to keep alive’.
Quit taking care of your grandfather. In fact, don’t do caregiving at all.
It is a sick joke for many elders to laying in feces and pee, some in pain and many having lost their minds.
The worst is the evil and wicked elders who are rotten to the core who live year after year torturing the adult child who feels obligated to take care of them while being abused.
I also wonder what the point of it all is. I mean life it seems is just a game of pick a straw and many are left with the short one through chance.