One of the most touching news articles I've read recently

I placed this thread into the Survival category because I think it's getting more and more difficult to choose how you survive in this life -- or not survive. It seems that everywhere we look, the government wants to decide all aspects of our lives including how we die.
(I did check to see if it had been posted, but nothing showed.)

Whether or not you support assisted suicide,
you should at least be supportive of allowing people the choice to do so.

Calif. man, 88, suspected of helping sick wife die

www.wftv.com...

SAN DIEGO — Relatives say 88-year-old Alan Purdy doted on his ailing wife, caring for her in a custom-built home north of San Diego through several years of sickness. Now, he's been arrested on suspicion of helping her kill herself.

The couple's son-in-law John Muster said it wasn't the first time li (sic) wife Margaret "Jo" Purdy, 84, had tried to commit suicide.

"She had mentioned for some time that she was under a great deal of pain and that this was a very hard life," Muster said Wednesday in a telephone interview from Berkeley. "It was a great life. I loved her dearly and I'm sorry she's gone. I'm not going to second-guess her choice."

The Purdys were close friends for many years and proved a perfect match when they married later in life, relatives said.

"They walked hand in hand," said James Purdy, a brother.

"They were very affectionate people," said Lois Purdy, a sister-in-law.

Margaret Purdy kept a close eye on her husband, who lost much of his hearing. He, in turn, watched after her as she battled a series of ailments in recent years.

Alan Purdy, a pilot with a doctorate in biomedical engineering, built several homes and airplanes and worked for years at the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Muster said. He was an expert at safety conditions on underwater oil rigs and researched questions like how much vibration a person could tolerate inside a truck.

Lois Purdy called him a "Renaissance man."

Alan Purdy was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of aiding a suicide after paramedics found his wife dead inside their home in San Marcos, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said. He was released on $15,000 bail.

Margaret Purdy had a bag over her head and died from asphyxia, said Michael Ellano, an investigator for the San Diego County medical examiner's office. The death was ruled a suicide.

I'm sure that this was very difficult for him and I hope that people find it in their hearts to allow him to continue on with the remainder of his life. I'm sure he does miss his bride dearly.

Besides, he's now faced with being without his soul mate until it's his time to go. His punishment? He doesn't have anyone to help him die if his life becomes too painful and his light for life has gone out. At least Mrs. Purdy had someone of his strength to see her on. That's a beautiful thing.

Our will to live is so very strong. The human spirit will usually claw its way through anything in order to make sure the body survives. But, when there comes a time when this flame is extinguished and life just isn't enjoyable anymore, some people know that it's time to let go. We should honor this whether we agree with them or not. It's their choice just as it's a person's choice to drive through a red light. Sure, it's against the law, but this is where the law needs to change. Driving through a red light is putting others in danger, but assisted suicide doesn't even come close to this. I feel as long as the investigation proves that it was an assisted suicide, the one who assisted should be able to carry on with the remainder of their lives. In the case of the couple in the article, I'm sure he won't be on this plane much longer. In nature, love birds and other bonded animals usually pass not too much longer after their mates. That's just the way it is.

Surviving in a body riddled with pain is exhausting. Some people cannot wrap their minds around this and cannot understand why/how someone finally decides to lay their cards down and say, "OK, I've had enough. Please help me."



In conclusion, I'll be keeping my eyes on this to make sure that the story's details are factual and the end result of the investigation and possible hearing.

As long as someone is of sound mind, they deserve to live and die however they wish.
Thanks for reading.

(I certainly don't expect everyone to have my same opinion on this matter, but I refuse to argue with anyone. With that said, please keep your comments civil. Thank you.)




Rest in Peace, Dr. Kevorkian.
May 26, 1928 – June 3, 2011

WORF: Please, sit down, Commander. Thank you for agreeing to see me in this condition.
RIKER: I'm not a Klingon. I don't think there's any shame in someone being injured.
WORF: I am not merely injured, Commander. Doctor Crusher believes my paralysis to be permanent.
RIKER: I'm sorry.
WORF: I have a personal favour to ask.
RIKER: Name it.
WORF: I want you to assist me in performing the Hegh'bat ceremony. I want you to help me die.
RIKER: What?
WORF: When a Klingon can no longer stand and face his enemies as a warrior, when he becomes a burden to his friends and family, it is time for the Hegh'bat. Time for him to die.

I agree. In my opinion it is an impedment of ones fre will to be refused the chance to end their suffering. I grew up watchind Dr. Kevorkian coverage here in Michigan. He was an incredible man for risking himself to help others the way he did. Here is one of the last interviews of him in the last couple of years of his life.

reply to post by usmc0311


Thanks for posting that video.
He's right. We need to stop fearing the law and begin fighting for what should be our right as a human being and have it not be illegal to make our own decisions about when it's our time to go.

It's amazing that this is still such a grey area for the law and humanity.

Oregon is OK about physician assisted suicide.
en.wikipedia.org...

Measure 16 of 1994 established the U.S. state of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act (ORS 127.800-995[1]), which legalizes physician-assisted dying with certain restrictions. Passage of this initiative made Oregon the first U.S. state and one of the first jurisdictions in the world to permit some terminally ill patients to determine the time of their own death.

Under the law, a capable adult Oregon resident who has been diagnosed, by a physician, with a terminal illness that will kill the patient within six months may request in writing, from his or her physician, a prescription for a lethal dose of medication for the purpose of ending the patient's life. Exercise of the option under this law is voluntary and the patient must initiate the request. Any physician, pharmacist or healthcare provider who has moral objections may refuse to participate.

I don't see a problem with this.

What i cannot understand,abortion on demand is legal-why can assisted suicide not be legal?? A beautiful little baby is gleefully denied the right to ever experience life..but a (usually) old person,who has had a long life,and is now in agony,debilitated and suffering,often terminal anyway,is not allowed to knock a year off their agony+suffering?By peacefully passing on a bit earlier, at the time and in the way of their choosing.They shoot horses,dont they?? Zimmerman has not been arrested,but they arrest this man for being merciful? God,i feel like vomiting when i see hypocrisy of this caliber! Sick,sick,sick.This world is one huge open-air lunatic asylum.

This is one issue where I can completely (at least to my mind) see both sides of the issue.

People have a right to determine when and how they live and die. Not being allowed to die is hauntingly similar to enslaving someone. Only a slave doesn't control their own body, because it's someone else's choice.


On the flip-side:

As a society, we in the USA never go "half-way" with anything. Either a state tries to make all abortion illegal, or else we have 3 million abortions every year, as a profit-making enterprise for doctors who are not competent to provide care for the living, and whose "casualty rates" of injured and killed mothers will never be discussed because it might help the anti-abortion crowd.

Likewise with the death penalty. Either you end up with a state only doing one a year, or else you have a state like mine, where they are practically running an assembly-line as a final solution for the societal ills they refuse to address.

We can't seem to be "in the middle" with any of these issues; whether it's abortion, or capital punishment, or euthenasia.

But the state has a responsibility to make us a life-affirming society, rather than a death-affirming society. If dying becomes "too" acceptable, then you have doctors deciding that some patients are not worth the effort, that some people are too old or too stupid or too ugly to keep on living.

IF we as a society don't "Fight Death" with all our best effort, we end up making our peace with death, especially the people we like less---minorities, the unwanted, the poor, disabled, etc.

If euthenasia were legal, it would be a lot easier to hide a murder: "I didn't kill him--I was helping him die!

It is becoming more and more common, as health care costs mount, and nursing homes become so expensive that working-class people can no longer afford them, that a lot of people end up dead; either right before moving to a nursing home, or in the home when the money is about to run out. Or right when they were going to sell the house. If the old-timer dies, the kids inherit the house largely tax-free. If the elder sells the home, there's capital gains tax, and of course medical bills that will eat up the kid's "inheritance."

Any realtor who does volume can tell you about houses being de-listed without a sale because the owner died and the heirs "decided to renovate and move in."

I don't want people to suffer. But I can see legal mercy-killing causing a lot of suffering.

I personally think that euthanasia should be aloud. what is the point in living your final days(even months or years) in pain and misery? if you are terminally ill, you should be allowed to die how you want to.

"I want to meet my maker in peace
I want to feel alive again
so put that smile back on my face, and mix it strong my friend.
'cause I can't feel my face, I won't struggle on, in a world so cold, in a world so wrong.
I'm not running away, been fighting this so long
such a price that we pay, we've got to be so strong
gonna take my life tonight, 'cause I have the right to die how I wanna, and leave how I arrived
so alive."

yeahhhhh. avenged sevenfold

reply to post by tovenar

But the state has a responsibility to make us a life-affirming society, rather than a death-affirming society. If dying becomes "too" acceptable, then you have doctors deciding that some patients are not worth the effort, that some people are too old or too stupid or too ugly to keep on living.

IF we as a society don't "Fight Death" with all our best effort, we end up making our peace with death, especially the people we like less---minorities, the unwanted, the poor, disabled, etc.

I appreciate you taking the time to comment and I agree completely with your first stance.
The above though is where I'm disagreeing. Nowhere would a doctor be able to decide unless the person did not have a living will and there were no close friends or family to consult. So, again, I don't condone anyone other than the ailing individual to choose as long as they are of sound mind. This is the grey area, but I would think that people would take responsibility for themselves by creating a living will before things got that bad.

The problem I see with our society is that we have been conditioned to fear death. Most ancient cultures simply looked at death as part of the life cycle and fearing it wasn't a common feeling. Regarding the sickly and handicapped, because of science and medicine, these folks can have fairly rewarding lives for many years. I am one of those, but when things become unbearable, only they should be able to say when.

In a nutshell, I simply would like the government to stay out of my life cycle.