TheBanyanTree: Assisted suicide

[Anita Coia]

Thank you, Monique, for sharing that story. Being with someone who dies in
suffering I have not yet experienced but I believe that assisted suicide
should be something a civilised and compassionate society supports and
provides. We put effort into taking the pain out of birth, why not death? 

So beautifully written...so loving that you did that for your beloveds. 

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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 12:05:36 -0700
From: Monique Colver <monique.colver at gmail.com>
To: Banyan Tree <thebanyantree at lists.remsset.com>
Subject: TheBanyanTree: Assisted Suicide - the topic of the week
Message-ID:
	<k2q3567063e1004261205se7acb209xc90ea9809e4b3249 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I don't know if assisted suicide is right or wrong, I only know that people
should have options, and that taking away their options isn't good for them,
or for us, because who knows? I may want that option myself some day.

When my ex-husband was dying I sat at his bedside, day after day, doing
nothing more than being there. He had all the heavy lifting to do, all the
work that goes into dying. I had the lightweight work, the sort that is
never quite enough help, but is the most we can, in most cases, do.

He was ready to go. He was so tired of the pain, of not being the same
person anymore, and he wasn't afraid of death at all, but he was very afraid
of dying.

Two entirely different things, aren't they?