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[onokentauros]

Find A WaySuicide is one of those topics spoken about almost casually: hanging from the end of a rope, bloated and facedown at the bottom of a pool, in the master bedroom with an open bottle of seroquel - and did you watch the Italians get their heads handed to them this morning in the World Cup? Still, after every time-of-death pronounciation

Comments

[annapeace]

Reasons unknown makes it tough to judge because better than asking why the man keeps destroying his pacemakers, ask what's keeping him alive. If the answer is nothing and he just wants to go in peace - naturally, I guess, without a machine keeping him going - then in my own opinion, I say let him go.

We probably won't agree, but I think that if a person honestly wants to die, let them die. They should have counseling and explore every possible alternative to dying, but in the end if they want to end their life, it's their life and they have that right.

Absolutely! (but it's still complex)

[onokentauros]

Usually the opinion of a patient with respect to life and death is supposed to be laid out in a document known as an "advance directive" - definitely a document that dictates how an individual wishes to be treated if their treatment involves any end-of-life care.

Usually.

Many people don't have one. And to compound things, strong emotions and changes in mental status exist (someone may not be suicidal 100% of the time). Without a legal document, we're stuck on shakey ground, and those "reasons unknown" make us open to litigation - if we incorrectly assumed that a patient wanted to die when in fact they did not...

[seishinbunseki]

Speaking of pacemakers and death, here's a story you might find interesting: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/magazine/20pacemaker-t.html?ref=deathanddying.

BTW: This is titanscholar's Jamie. :)

[onokentauros]

I know who you are :)
I really the NYTimes magazine for their long-form articles, and read this when it came out in mid-June. It was (and still is) a harrowing portrait of loss.

Let me know when you and J. are free - I'd very much like to see the both of you before the move happens.