Death with Dignity (page 3)

Princess

I agree Flyin. She died with dignity but needlessly. The baby died too.

Doubtfully Yours

I'm as far removed as I can possibly be from the JW reasoning, and yet I'm not able to bring myself to receive nor donate blood or any human organ.

Perhaps the JW indoctrination since birth is deeply imbedded in me.

Having said that, I've read materials of doctors that, far from being JWs, totally oppose the use of blood in their practice. Blood is like fingerprints, no two humans have the same. From there comes the need to take medications in order to force the body to accept it, and also in the case of foreign organs.

I can honestly say that, JW or not, I plan never to donate nor receive blood or organs.

DY

Mulan

Perhaps the JW indoctrination since birth is deeply imbedded in me.

I am sure that explains it. Deep indoctrination. So sorry.

Doubtfully Yours

Many times I think and feel so too, Mulan.

Due to the indoctrination being 'built in the hard drive', I can check out anytime I'd like but I could never leave.

DY

Scarlet

I agree with the others that if you can live by simply having a blood transfusion or a organ transplant that is not fair to the ones who love you to take your life away from them. I too plan to donate my organs when they die and hope that they can serve some purpose to extend anothers life where people need them.

StinkyPantz

I'm still curious how refusing a blood transfusion and/or an organ transplant is dignified..

bebu

I wonder if dignity is the thing we should be aiming for in it all. Dignity is a thing that should be about all our actions in life, and hopefully recognizable at our death as well. (BTW, interesting topic and interesting replies! )

I think if you are acting in your own conscience, and are motivated by love toward others in your choices, then dignity is a more natural result.

I personally have no objections to transfusions, etc. I might refuse one, though, if there were a shortage of blood available.

bebu

LittleToe

Rachel:

Your life affects others, so does your death.

Very well put!

I'm of the opinion that every situation requires being thought about in it's own right.
It's an analysis of what the prognosis regarding your quality of life, might be, weighed together with factors regarding those you love, and a pile of other variables.

As most folks know, I'm a Christian with a very present sense of an afterlife. I'm looking forward to it.
That having been said I enjoy this life to the full and would prolong it as long as the quality was reasonable and there was a purpose (like enjoying loved ones). I have no desire to foreshorten it, and if I live to 120 I would consider myself a fortunate man.

The recuperation and pain involved in surgery don't inspire me, but the ends often justify the means. I would have no compuncture about taking a blood transfusion, though I'd much rather my body be given the opportunity to heal itself.

I was robbed of dignity, as a JW, and have little desire to repeat the experience. Life and death usually have whatever dignity you afford it (though I accept that some debilitating illnesses strip much of this away)

.

GentlyFeral

bebu asked,

I wonder if dignity is the thing we should be aiming for in it all.

Maybe not. There's a difference between a craven scrabbling for one more breath - which I would not begrudge anybody at all! - and a refusal to surrender to death. I mean, I'm perfectly willing to sign a DNR order, but if there's any reasonable chance I will take surgery, blood, years of medications - dammit, I have people to love, poems to write, and minds to mess with.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-- Dylan Thomas

onacruse

I used the blood transfusion/organ transplant scenario simply as an example, and didn't intend it to be the primary issue.

"Death With Dignity" is the name of a legalized act in Oregon (just this last week challenged in the US Supreme Court by the out-going US Attorney General John Ashroft [God not rest his pathetic self-serving fundamentalist soul ]), allowing a patient with a terminal disease to (after strictly evaluated reviews by medical professionals) ask for and receive quantities of certain drugs that could, when self-administered, lead to self-death; perhaps best described as self-euthanasia.

My inquiry is rather, why would you choose a different path in life, in deference to death? Is Death really so scary?

And if Death isn't so scary, then why should Death With Dignity be a problem?

Craig

Death with Dignity

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