AllOurWorldsAre
PersonalVille
When he speaks from personal experience about something he really knows about the old sportswriter can still bring it.
The following is from his weekend column in the Globe:
One day, society will look back at the way we currently allow some people to spend their last stretch of time on Earth, and it will abhor us.
I’ll admit that I have been unsure in the past about the “right to die.” On one hand, I understand there are people whose lives have become essentially valueless, because of illness, tragedy or some other reason. Because of that, they would rather not spend their final days trapped in a world of misery, despair, pain and/or physical suffering...
{snip}
I’ve had trouble imagining signing an order to end a person’s life, especially if that person was someone I spent a lifetime loving ....
Now, I realize how incredibly selfish that point of view was.
I came to this opinion recently while watching my younger brother die of cancer...
It's a piece worth using up one of your free 10 per month visits to the Globe's website to read in it's entirety.
And it is the kind of stuff that I, for one, would be willing to pay real money for if it showed up more often in the Globe.
(I currently restrict my cash outlays to BellGlobeCTVTSNRDIEverythingElseMedia to the Saturday dead-tree edition of the Globe)
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You know, I've often wondered if Mr. Mason should go all small ball, all the time...To be more specific, I think he'd make a helluva Lotuslandian On The Salish Sea version of, say, Herb Caen...Heckfire!...Even obvious stuff can fit nicely into the three dot format...
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2 comments:
I did go and read the article. Good for him having written it. It needs to be said. It needs to be out there.
I've always been in favour of deciding when you die. When our pets become too ill to enjoy life, we let them go to sleep. Why wouldn't I do that for my sister, brother, parent, loved one, etc. The state might not permit it, but I would never let some one I loved die in that type of situation, a hollow skelton, racked with pain, and not playing with a full deck. The doctors take an oath, do no harm. Well keeping some people alive does a great deal of harm to their bodies and their souls.
Those who object on religious grounds, well no one is telling you can take the long way out. Just let the rest of us take the cool aid.
In Holland you get to decide. My uncle did and it was good. He made his decision and was spared all the drama we inflect on the sick in this country. I got to say good bye, while he still knew me and could talk, then he exited at a date and time he wanted. There was no drama, just happy he got to end his life, the way he had lived it.
eaf--
I, myself, have been thinking of the pet comparison recently also.
Thanks for telling us about your uncle.
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