Who's for Euthanasing Themselves?

Have a DNR (under certain conditions), medical advocacy, the power of attorney, et.al.. Last trip to the Dr., I had her sign myself as a university med school cadaver, then cremated (at their cost). At first my wishes were to be released on a breezy day on a drive to my favorite mountain nirvana. Then asked if I could be used (cremains) in a compost. (As long as it's stated in my wishes).

I'm not one for visiting cemeteries as I mentally converse with all departed family and friends. Annually, I pull weeds, rake in red bark mulch on my grandmother, aunts and uncle in a non perpetual country ranching area cemetery. All others are in an perpetual cemetery or urn wall, or the National cemetery.

So, either wind carrying me, or mixed with a great soil mix, that's my intention. The med school will hopefully learn a bit once my body is donated.

I told friends and family alike, when I've passed on, play your favorite music, eat your favorite food, and toast me with a libation or a hit.

How about roller skating down California Avenue in San Francisco ?

You will get some major air at some of the cross streets and you MIGHT land it.

If you wipe out, you probably won't feel a thing.

If you land it, well, it might be a sign that it's time to keep living.

That is such a terrible end. A discompassionate end. An inhuman end!
I have been part of a team that cared for a dying person and we knew that bedsores are "the nurse's shame"! Bedsores happen because the Patient lies too long in one position without moving. So the blood supply to pressure points gets cut off and the skin there dies resulting in ulcers.

We were proud that our Patient (my Mother) died without bedsores.

EsterEssence said:

I am putting in my last will that I want to be euthanized, either when I become an invalid human or have Alzheimer’s and no quality of life. My Dad died from bed sores, not knowing who he was, I know that he would not of wanted to go that way but my Christian step mom wouldn’t do it. I will make the decision either by will or when the quality of life gets so uncomfortable I can’t deal with it anymore...

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The idea of cemeteries remind me of a documentary I saw recently about the Indigenous Yolgnu mob (tribe) from Northern Australia. They had some bones of their ancestors stolen by white 'scientists' just after the second world war and went to get them back from the Smithsonian Institute in the U S. in 2000 and something.


Having got the bones back they did not know who was who. Only that the remains were male or female. Not knowing which clan the bones belonged to meant that they could not rebury them in the respective clan burial sites. So they came up with a new way. (Flexible inventive Indigenous Australians!)


During the story we whites found out that the normal burial was to place the deceased in a tree until the birds had carried away all the flesh. "Scattered" it to the four corners, yes? Then when there was no flesh left the skeleton would be taken down and the bones ... the 'essence' ... were cleaned and rubbed with red ochre ... essential earth! ... before they were placed carefully in respective clan caves.


These rites used to be secret but the Smithsonian bones were rubbed with Ochre and buried in full view of Whites and their cameras.


(PS: Indigenous children are imagined to come from Earth. Late term pregnant women go to 'womens places' where Earth gives them children. I heard a man say "Earth gave me to my Mother". So those bones went back to where they came from. FULL CIRCLE!)

aridbud said:

Have a DNR (under certain conditions), medical advocacy, the power of attorney, et.al.. Last trip to the Dr., I had her sign myself as a university med school cadaver, then cremated (at their cost). At first my wishes were to be released on a breezy day on a drive to my favorite mountain nirvana. Then asked if I could be used (cremains) in a compost. (As long as it's stated in my wishes).

I'm not one for visiting cemeteries as I mentally converse with all departed family and friends. Annually, I pull weeds, rake in red bark mulch on my grandmother, aunts and uncle in a non perpetual country ranching area cemetery. All others are in an perpetual cemetery or urn wall, or the National cemetery.

So, either wind carrying me, or mixed with a great soil mix, that's my intention. The med school will hopefully learn a bit once my body is donated.

I told friends and family alike, when I've passed on, play your favorite music, eat your favorite food, and toast me with a libation or a hit.

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re Sunny Garcia's attempted euthanasia ...

He tried to hang himself.

Having met him and rooted for as an athlete for several years, I know - he's really strong.

I don't know the exact details of his attempted suicide. But he survived and is now living in a hospital for about $30,000 a day.

A terrible penalty for his family.

If he really wanted to end it, he needed to account for his strength. & jump off a 100 foot cliff, not a 20 foot ladder or a 3 story building.

Normally I would say the world is better off with Sunny in it. But how he feels is very important.

If in an environment that doesn't support euthanasia, few methods are more effective and proven than CO poisoning. Especially if done in a place lacking in likelihood of intervention.

Taking into account who is apt to find the person, post-mortem, and in what condition, matters if the person isn't too self-absorbed in their own view of things.

I've figured that CO, in a tent, on a cot, with 3 days of fasting, and limited fluid intake. It can be dismissed for my younger son and formalities as accidental, there's no cramped quarters causing anyone to have to break limbs free from rigor mortis as the body is already in the same position it would be on a gurney, and there's no load in the drawers, after the muscles in the body initially release. No blood spatter on the wall and floor, little distortion to the corpse, making for horrific images, etc.

The images we put others through and tattoo in their minds when we pull the plug ourselves should be a part of the thought and preparation process. No one owes us the extra trauma they stand to experience when cleaning up after our final hoorah, if planned poorly or done hastily in anger or depression..

You will come out pink though. The Germans found that out in the early days of WWII. Same colour you came into this world

I like this post, Man! Informative, sensible, compassionate.

Didn't get the part about your Son tho ... ?

Cheers from Oz!

moose eater said:

If in an environment that doesn't support euthanasia, few methods are more effective and proven than CO poisoning. Especially if done in a place lacking in likelihood of intervention.

Taking into account who is apt to find the person, post-mortem, and in what condition, matters if the person isn't too self-absorbed in their own view of things.

I've figured that CO, in a tent, on a cot, with 3 days of fasting, and limited fluid intake. It can be dismissed for my younger son and formalities as accidental, there's no cramped quarters causing anyone to have to break limbs free from rigor mortis as the body is already in the same position it would be on a gurney, and there's no load in the drawers, after the muscles in the body initially release. No blood spatter on the wall and floor, little distortion to the corpse, making for horrific images, etc.

The images we put others through and tattoo in their minds when we pull the plug ourselves should be a part of the thought and preparation process. No one owes us the extra trauma they stand to experience when cleaning up after our final hoorah, if planned poorly or done hastily in anger or depression..

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More and more every day.

I have surgical "experiment" # 8 coming up in the next couple of weeks. These geniuses never mentioned anything about that infection in my colon which has gotten worse and now part of it needs to be taken out.


If this doesn't work I have a stash just for this escape hatch if it can be available....Belgium, or wherever. If it's possible.

Teddybrae said:

I like this post, Man! Informative, sensible, compassionate.

Didn't get the part about your Son tho ... ?

Cheers from Oz!

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My younger son is 15.5 y.o.

I was 8.5 when my father decided to exit stage left, rather than facing his demons. I was 6 when he headed out the highway.

The departure of persons responsible for us when we're young, leaves questions born of the naturally elevated ego of children. Whether suicide or abandonment, the often-asked inner question, frequently unstated aloud, is, "If they really loved me, why would they leave me? Was I worth that little to them?" etc.

I found the same tendency among adopted children I worked with, who knew they were adopted, even when they had made their way into families where there were few real problems, and they acknowledged their adopted life as being fortunate. They -still- wanted to know why their birth parent(s) had left them, if they really loved them.

The potential for very early damage to self-concept if such issues linger unanswered.

Again, children very naturally see themselves as the center of the universe, and often have somewhat simplistic understandings of relationship, obligation, cause-and-effect, life, etc.

The older the child, the less this is an issue, providing they are well developed and relatively mentally healthy. But the closeness of the relationship to the departing person is also an additional variable.

A perceived accidental death is an accidental death. Settle it with God, and maybe the child still asks questions re. God's or the Cosmos' concern for them. But the questions of whether or not they were sufficiently lovable by/to the physical beings who brought them into the world, and were supposed to love them forever, are less profound if it was simply an accident.

If they are older, then lay it on the table, maybe even do that when they're well-developed later adolescents. But in my mind, despite resentments in my own experiences where truth was concerned, it takes a lot of work to impart into a child's psyche that they -were- loved very much, AND the parent still needed to exit. Sometimes for the child's benefit.

A long somewhat philosophical and clinical answer to your question, based in personal experiences, as well as professional insights.

You asked.

The reality of euthanasia or suicide by a parent, in the experience of their child, has the capacity to move the concept of 'self-inflicted demise' from an abstraction, to the place of a more real option that walks with them forever, sometimes every day, in some way. It more readily becomes a choice to die or live, and there's potentially some HEAVY Yin & Yang in that. Those who know that they don't have to stay on Earth, based on close example, are here because they CHOOSE to live, as opposed to just riding the conveyor belt. But they also have a readily available 'out' that has been modeled for them by those they come from.

That's a shorter answer, now that I've had a sip of beer.

Yes Moose! I 've Counselled adopted children. They talk without naming an issue. The lack of a clear issue shows that they are acting out a sense of disconnection, of lacking a center.

Sometimes there's more center to that verbal effluent you're referencing than you might think. From personal experience, it can act as a pressure-relief valve for what is going on IN their center, wherein they may be having 3, 4, 6, or 100 thoughts or different images, memories, stressors, however scrambled together, in the same time period as you're having 1-2.

Sometimes it's our hearing/seeing that is deficient, and the person in front of us may have to contend with the burden of our not perceiving what's there, as it's too much or foreign for us to make sense of.

And sometimes paying attention to what's NOT being said will help to focus on what is really being said.

I sometimes remind folks that a key trigger for PTSD isn't necessarily the graphic images or memories alone, but reliving the sense of utter powerlessness in the face of horrid experiences. The sense that there's an obligation to do SOMETHING, when in fact, nothing can be done, and acceptance of that reality is too far away, too ethereal, too abstract to come into play and provide the Zen relief that it ought to.

I learned what that force was, despite knowing it without knowing it, working with a group of vets, who'd listened over radio chatter, as horrible things occurred to their brothers, 200 ft. away, and unable to do anything about it. And it clicked, and SO much made sense then. 20 years later they were still very affected.

I owe them for that, but I couldn't bring myself to look them in the eyes. We all stared into space, or at the floor.

If you check the charted/templated points on a graph, defining the experiences or symptoms of PTSD, onset, expression, etc., those kids often have the -exact- same trajectory/curve on the graph, or identifiers, as the combat vets. Except in the lives of the kids, the enemy was often the person(s) who society said was supposed to care for and love them, whereas in battle, the enemy was consciously expected to try to destroy.

One of the better counselors I had was a Viet Nam vet dealing with PTSD victims before it had a name.

My attempts to deal left my children damaged, some hard choices had to be made.
The children are doing well enough, that was important to me.

But euthanasia (what a neutral word that is) now that they are grown up?
Some things will never be dealt with, the separation is too great to be bridged.

Three cancers were expected to kill me in 2016, hepatitis C was supposed to kill me in 2014, four heart attacks, I am on my second bonus year since being told I would die without another stent.
I drinks two to three cups of coffee a day and mix it with Kratom.

A life of violence seems to have left me overly strong. Damn, because direct suicide is too tough for me. That is a fear I can readily admit.

Whoa, 11:00 AM, time for another cup of coffee. Slow motion is better than no motion.

"The children are doing well enough ..."
"Some things will never be dealt with ..."
"... direct suicide is too tough for me. That is a fear I can readily admit."
"Slow motion is better than no motion."


My Mother agreed, saying: "Ah, but Life is Sweet!"

Phaeton said:

One of the better counselors I had was a Viet Nam vet dealing with PTSD victims before it had a name.

My attempts to deal left my children damaged, some hard choices had to be made.
The children are doing well enough, that was important to me.

But euthanasia (what a neutral word that is) now that they are grown up?
Some things will never be dealt with, the separation is too great to be bridged.

Three cancers were expected to kill me in 2016, hepatitis C was supposed to kill me in 2014, four heart attacks, I am on my second bonus year since being told I would die without another stent.
I drinks two to three cups of coffee a day and mix it with Kratom.

A life of violence seems to have left me overly strong. Damn, because direct suicide is too tough for me. That is a fear I can readily admit.

Whoa, 11:00 AM, time for another cup of coffee. Slow motion is better than no motion.

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ET /God has the ability & sometimes the willingness to fix a lot of conditions.

If you really want to check out & it's because of a medical condition, I suggest going to Area 51 with a sign that says,

"Dear God, Mr/Mrs. ET, and Angels and Grays -

Need help with condition X in my (Body Part) Y."


That would be a good place for a smoke-out.

St. Phatty said:

ET /God has the ability & sometimes the willingness to fix a lot of conditions.

If you really want to check out & it's because of a medical condition, I suggest going to Area 51 with a sign that says,

"Dear God, Mr/Mrs. ET, and Angels and Grays -

Need help with condition X in my (Body Part) Y."


That would be a good place for a smoke-out.

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I'd recommend a Dead or Santana show, as few places are more soulful. Otis is gone, as is Janis.

Great thread Teddy. This is something that has hit home with me personally in the last couple days. My step father passed away in his sleep two days ago after suffering with throat cancer and a total laryngectomy for the last three years. He'd refused to go to the doctor for the last few years as he hated hospitals and not being in control of his own life. He did concede to get some tests done in the last few weeks, but unfortunately his doctor didn't get around to reading the results prior to his death. He passed with a serious bout of Pneumonia and heart failure. At first we were pretty upset with the care, but he still may have passed even with care and at least in this case he passed relatively peacefully next to the woman he loved. I couldn't think of a better way to go myself and I'm happy he did go on his own terms. He lead an incredible life prior to the diagnosis and for him to be reduced to sitting in an uncaring hospital, with tubes coming in and out of him would be his worst nightmare, his diminished capacity as a human following the laryngetomy was sad enough. I think self determination in your own demise can be a tricky thing for people to understand, but in this case I feel it was the most dignified resolution, even if it takes the loved ones a while to come to terms with it.