I had a Catholic friend dying of hepatitis C. He was literally rotting while alive. The doctor told him his death would be particularly gruesome and hard on his family; he was staying at home in the living room. (BTW, the doctor turned out to be right.) The doctor said, “If you were to take 5 of the blue pills, 4 of the red ones and 3 yellow ones you’d drift into a pleasant fog and gently pass away.” To which my friend indignantly said, “You aren’t suggesting I commit suicide!” Doctor, hastily, “No, no. I was just warning you not to take 5 blue pills, 4 red pills with 3 yellow pills.”
My personal view is that a “right” to die becomes and obligation to die. But a month ago, my father demanded (and had put in writing in advance) that he not receive extreme measures. He was 95 and had lived 10 years in pain and the last five in great pain. The family had to fight constantly with the floor doctor and nursing staff to prevent them from “coding” him. It took five days to die and we were with him most of the time.
Suppose the hospital’s metric wasn’t how many people who die there, but how many people they “help” to die. How soon would it be that they constantly badgered the sick and the families to allow them to “end the patient’s suffering?”
Fortunately, we live in America. If you want to kill yourself you can do it on your own. (I liked the American guy who was dying and went to Pakistan in search of Osama. They should have just pointed him in the right direction.)
Death panels! Sarah Palin was right.