Quality of Life

[Noomi]

I voted yes but I would like to add that if I was only paralyzed from the waist down I might decide not to take my own life. I could still be independent.

If I was paralyzed from the neck down I would not want to live that way. There is no way I want to be completely helpless and dependent on others to feed me and wipe my ass.

I agree with that. As long as I can still move my arms, I will be fine, but f I couldn't move from the neck down, I would want to die.

 

[editec]

There IS LIFE after quadriplegia...of this I am quite certain.

Working my way through Boston Univ. I headed the West Campus' Boston Center for Independent Living.

My employees ( the quads) and I had a hell of a good time.

Ya never know until you're there, folks.

 

[Spiderman]

There IS LIFE after quadriplegia...of this I am quite certain.

Working my way through Boston Univ. I headed the West Campus' Boston Center for Independent Living.

My employees ( the quads) and I had a hell of a good time.

Ya never know until you're there, folks.

Yeah great times.

Having someone spoon feed you, empty your urostomy bag and shove a gloved hand up your ass to dig out the shit.

What a hoot!

 

[Rozman]

Not only do I say yes.
I say HELL YES....

To spend 30,40,50 years just laying there while a machine keeps me alive...
You have to be kidding me.
I say my goodbyes,make sure all my affairs are in order.Give someone access to all my financial stuff.
The Insurance carrier holding my life insurance policy tells me to fuck off they will not pay the death part of the policy...Fine I have a whole life policy so just cash me out dillholes....

Then I tell people I will see them on the other side and off I go...
I slip the orderly a $100 or have my brother do it and they add a little morphine to make the trip easier
and I am on my way!

 

[Rozman]

Oh and one last thing...
I would ask to see that recent selfie of Kim Kardashian taking her own picture
showing off that gigantic ASS!

 

[Luddly Neddite]

To spend 30,40,50 years just laying there while a machine keeps me alive...

If it makes any difference, spinal cord injured people don't live very long. Again, using Christopher Reeve as an example, he had excellent care but only lived about 10 years after his accident. His was a very high injury and, if I remember right, he was always on a respirator.

I've known high level injured people who begged for help to die. Who among us is qualified to force them to keep living?

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

It's surprising how many people when faced with daunting obstacles over come them and go on to do great things. This man had no inner strength to draw on.

And you personally knew the individual?

No?

In that case how do you know whether he had ‘inner strength’ or not?

Did you consider that he indeed had ‘inner strength’ which gave him the courage to make his end of life decision?

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

"So they removed his breathing tube and he died five hours later"

5 hours?

How cruel, couldn't they just shoot him?

Pretty sure not.

Why did they let him suffer for 5 hours?

And you personally knew the individual?

No?

In that case how do you know whether he ‘suffered’ or not?

We’ll assume from this and your other posts that you advocate some sort of ‘law’ making illegal what occurred in the cited OP article.

And of course you’d be wrong in this advocacy.

Only individuals and their families are best suited to make end of life decisions, not the state.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Is anybody going to answer the question? Just curious.

Far as I can see, you have posited no question.

In his shoes, I would do the same: Yes, no or don't know.

No, I would not.

Of course that’s my personal decision, unique to me and my personal situation, where for another in a similar situation it would not be an appropriate decision.

 

[Katzndogz]

It's surprising how many people when faced with daunting obstacles over come them and go on to do great things. This man had no inner strength to draw on.

And you personally knew the individual?

No?

In that case how do you know whether he had ‘inner strength’ or not?

Did you consider that he indeed had ‘inner strength’ which gave him the courage to make his end of life decision?

I posted a lengthy list of people who went on to live very successful lives as quadriplegics. It takes no inner strength to die. None. The most fearful die the soonest. It takes more to face challenges. If you do a quick look at artists who became artists after accidents left them quadriplegics you will find many people who learned to paint holding the brush in their mouth.

Commending a suicide because of catastrophic paralyzation is just the solace you would want because you know that you would not possibly want to be burdened with someone like that. You certainly wouldn't want to pay for care when that money could better be spent on buying yourself a new IPad. Now you have an out, they wanted it, it was for their own best interests (not to mention yours). It's a not very clever rationalization to make you feel better.

If we had a tiny bit of honesty floating around it would look something like this: If I had a loved one that ended up needing extraordinary care, I would hope they would decide to die rather than expect me to pitch in and take care of them. Now you can go around feeling all noble and all. It was your sacrifice instead of theirs.

What claptrap.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

As earlier posts show, katzen is wrong about all of this.

A new iPad? That's less than a week's care for a quad.

I think I wrote this in another thread but -

Craig Rehab Hosp in Colorado requires that all new employees spend 24 hours as a spinal cord injury. That means being in a wheelchair, not using lower extremities and doing all the things one does during a 24 hour period. Shopping, eating out, getting in and out of a public bathroom, elevators and a lot more.

Unless one experiences it, one cannot even begin to understand what that life is like.

Unless one experiences it, one has no right to judge the actions of others.

 

[boedicca]

"So they removed his breathing tube and he died five hours later"

5 hours?

How cruel, couldn't they just shoot him?

Pretty sure not.

Why did they let him suffer for 5 hours?

He didn't want to live that way and made his choice.

Suffer for 5 hours without a breathing tube or suffer for perhaps years with it.

I'd likely make the same choice he did.

 

[PixieStix]

My quality of life may not be an acceptable quality to some, but to me it is.

What if it changes, though? What if you couldn't move, or do anything to care for yourself, and had to rely on other people to dress you, bathe you, feed you, wipe your ass, etc? Would your quality of life change, or stay the same?

If is a very big word. If something changes, (and most things do, eventually), I will deal with it myself. I will never ask anyone to make those choices for me. I cross bridges when they are in front of me. One thing I really love to do, is dig deep and find strength in any adversity that may arise. I have a certain perspective, that only comes from God..

My favorite word in the world is acceptance, it is almost spiritual to me.

Do you know this man?

http://www.nndb.com/people/836/000047695/krauthammer.jpg

I admire him. He made sure he had a lot to give with or without mobility

 

[boedicca]

It's surprising how many people when faced with daunting obstacles over come them and go on to do great things. This man had no inner strength to draw on.

And you personally knew the individual?

No?

In that case how do you know whether he had ‘inner strength’ or not?

Did you consider that he indeed had ‘inner strength’ which gave him the courage to make his end of life decision?

I posted a lengthy list of people who went on to live very successful lives as quadriplegics. It takes no inner strength to die. None. The most fearful die the soonest. It takes more to face challenges. If you do a quick look at artists who became artists after accidents left them quadriplegics you will find many people who learned to paint holding the brush in their mouth.

Commending a suicide because of catastrophic paralyzation is just the solace you would want because you know that you would not possibly want to be burdened with someone like that. You certainly wouldn't want to pay for care when that money could better be spent on buying yourself a new IPad. Now you have an out, they wanted it, it was for their own best interests (not to mention yours). It's a not very clever rationalization to make you feel better.

If we had a tiny bit of honesty floating around it would look something like this: If I had a loved one that ended up needing extraordinary care, I would hope they would decide to die rather than expect me to pitch in and take care of them. Now you can go around feeling all noble and all. It was your sacrifice instead of theirs.

What claptrap.

It's sad that you can't respect the man's choice to not live that way.

 

[boedicca]

Do you know this man?

http://www.nndb.com/people/836/000047695/krauthammer.jpg

I admire him. He made sure he had a lot to give with or without mobility

I admire Krauthammer, too. But his situation is far better than the man in the OP. Charles can breathe on his own, speak, has freedom of movement (he can drive a car) and use a wheel chair. he has limited use of his arms and hands.

That's a different existence than being flat on one's back with a breathing tube, and the man in the OP made his choice not to live that way.

 

[Esmeralda]

It's surprising how many people when faced with daunting obstacles over come them and go on to do great things. This man had no inner strength to draw on.

And you personally knew the individual?

No?

In that case how do you know whether he had ‘inner strength’ or not?

Did you consider that he indeed had ‘inner strength’ which gave him the courage to make his end of life decision?

I posted a lengthy list of people who went on to live very successful lives as quadriplegics. It takes no inner strength to die. None. The most fearful die the soonest. It takes more to face challenges. If you do a quick look at artists who became artists after accidents left them quadriplegics you will find many people who learned to paint holding the brush in their mouth.

Commending a suicide because of catastrophic paralyzation is just the solace you would want because you know that you would not possibly want to be burdened with someone like that. You certainly wouldn't want to pay for care when that money could better be spent on buying yourself a new IPad. Now you have an out, they wanted it, it was for their own best interests (not to mention yours). It's a not very clever rationalization to make you feel better.

If we had a tiny bit of honesty floating around it would look something like this: If I had a loved one that ended up needing extraordinary care, I would hope they would decide to die rather than expect me to pitch in and take care of them. Now you can go around feeling all noble and all. It was your sacrifice instead of theirs.

What claptrap.

You don't know what is in other peoples' hearts. You only know what is in your heart. And, honestly, that seems to be so unpleasant, I think most people would prefer you kept it to yourself. Nice a nice thing to look at.

 

[alan1]

Is anybody going to answer the question? Just curious.

I wouldn't want to be kept alive by extreme measures such as that. Pull the plug and let me die.

I've made my choice about this perfectly clear in my living will. My parents, my brother, my sister, my adult children and my attorney all have a copy of it. I have talked extensively with my sister about it as she is the one I have given the ultimate authority to make any final decision concerning extraordinary life maintaining needs. She knows my wishes. Before I drafted the living will I asked for her permission to designate her as the authority.

I had good reasons to choose my sister. First, even though my children are adults, they are young. They also love me dearly and I'm not sure they could make the decision to let me go. Second, my parents have already been involved once before on making the decision to end life support for one of their children (I was also involved in making that decision concerning my dead sister). So, although I know my parents are capable of making such a decision, I saw how much that decision devastated them. I don't know that they could make the same choice again. Third, my brother is my twin, and yes, there is a special bond between us. Additionally, he is not a decisive person. He would make a choice such as this by consensus, meaning he wouldn't end life support unless my children and my parents agreed, effectively putting that decision into the hands of people that I don't want to lay that responsibility onto. Finally, my sister. She's been a nurse for over 30 years now. She has the experience and the medical knowledge to understand extraordinary life maintenance. She has personally witnessed and been care-giver to people on life support as they slowly wasted away. She is pragmatic, she understands my wishes concerning this and she is willing to take on the responsibility to make the hard decision if I am incapable of it. Besides being family, she is also my best friend.

 

[Katzndogz]

And you personally knew the individual?

No?

In that case how do you know whether he had ‘inner strength’ or not?

Did you consider that he indeed had ‘inner strength’ which gave him the courage to make his end of life decision?

I posted a lengthy list of people who went on to live very successful lives as quadriplegics. It takes no inner strength to die. None. The most fearful die the soonest. It takes more to face challenges. If you do a quick look at artists who became artists after accidents left them quadriplegics you will find many people who learned to paint holding the brush in their mouth.

Commending a suicide because of catastrophic paralyzation is just the solace you would want because you know that you would not possibly want to be burdened with someone like that. You certainly wouldn't want to pay for care when that money could better be spent on buying yourself a new IPad. Now you have an out, they wanted it, it was for their own best interests (not to mention yours). It's a not very clever rationalization to make you feel better.

If we had a tiny bit of honesty floating around it would look something like this: If I had a loved one that ended up needing extraordinary care, I would hope they would decide to die rather than expect me to pitch in and take care of them. Now you can go around feeling all noble and all. It was your sacrifice instead of theirs.

What claptrap.

You don't know what is in other peoples' hearts. You only know what is in your heart. And, honestly, that seems to be so unpleasant, I think most people would prefer you kept it to yourself. Nice a nice thing to look at.

Honesty is seldom easy to look at. You, for instance, are one of those who would rather not be bothered, but are too dishonest to say so.

 

[Esmeralda]

I posted a lengthy list of people who went on to live very successful lives as quadriplegics. It takes no inner strength to die. None. The most fearful die the soonest. It takes more to face challenges. If you do a quick look at artists who became artists after accidents left them quadriplegics you will find many people who learned to paint holding the brush in their mouth.

Commending a suicide because of catastrophic paralyzation is just the solace you would want because you know that you would not possibly want to be burdened with someone like that. You certainly wouldn't want to pay for care when that money could better be spent on buying yourself a new IPad. Now you have an out, they wanted it, it was for their own best interests (not to mention yours). It's a not very clever rationalization to make you feel better.

If we had a tiny bit of honesty floating around it would look something like this: If I had a loved one that ended up needing extraordinary care, I would hope they would decide to die rather than expect me to pitch in and take care of them. Now you can go around feeling all noble and all. It was your sacrifice instead of theirs.

What claptrap.

You don't know what is in other peoples' hearts. You only know what is in your heart. And, honestly, that seems to be so unpleasant, I think most people would prefer you kept it to yourself. Nice a nice thing to look at.

Honesty is seldom easy to look at. You, for instance, are one of those who would rather not be bothered, but are too dishonest to say so.

How the hell would you know? You don't even know what you would do if such a situation were a reality. Your attitude is completely self serving, not honest at all. And you are judging others. You DO NOT KNOW what you would really do in such a situation, and you don't know what others would do or why they would do it. XXXXX

 

[KokomoJojo]

Is anybody going to answer the question? Just curious.

Far as I can see, you have posited no question.

In his shoes, I would do the same: Yes, no or don't know.

how can you expect anyone to answer that question accurately when lifes circumstances can change from minute to minute?