Angie Belecciu took her own life. She was sick, dying and not looking forward to it. Her story is quite amazing, and shows that rational sane people do want to die. What right does anyone have to stop them?
Hey, you human? Guess what, you’re dead. One day, that’s it, gone. The power stops, you shut down and begin the process of decomposing.  How’s that make you feel?
We all do it, and yet, in Australia, and I expect lots of other Western type countries, its a problem talking about it.
Patients don’t die in pain, say the doctors in the article, drugs are wonderful and are a fine way to manage you out the door. This all comes about after Angie Belecciu took her own life, she had to import drugs, illegally from Mexico.
So on one hand we have a palliative care nurse, who has seen people die in pain and on the other hand, a bunch of doctors who say no its OK, no one really dies in pain. Who should we believe? And why oh why, when there is no hope of recovery do we prolong life? Let them die. If they want to die, let them.
I would even extend that to anyone who has had enough of life. You know, there’s nothing wrong with dying, and if your life is really that bad, then you should be allowed to die. My personal stance is I want to live as long as possible and have as much fun as possible, I only get one chance at this, but when life stops being good, then its my choice to die, if I’m sick, depressed, in pain or just had enough, then its my right to end my life.
Its a tough call, I recognise that. My experience with an ex-llama shows how much we fight to keep other people alive. She wanted to die, the rest of us tried to save her. For selfish reasons. No one listened to what she wanted. Its also really easy to say now that its just as well she didn’t die. She’s been about to watch her llama off spring leap about happily, which is nice. There’s other things too though, there’s the constant pain and depression that she lives with. I’d hate for her to die now, but again that’s just a selfish attitude. I don’t live life her way and I don’t experience it her way.
Religion needs to take a back seat on this. There is no mandate from any god to preserve life. There is no great mystery to solve, there is no lesson to learn. It hurts, I want to die, let me die. Its a cry that is often heard and one that we are so unable to address in any sensible manner.
Its time. If you want to die, then off you go. Our society is now mature enough to provide painless methods, and these should be allowed and available to all who choose to die.