Assisted end of life
 

Hello,
I would just like to know if anyone knows of a legal place in or near Utah that one could get help ending their life if the pain and suffering is just too much and they really don't have a life anymore anyway. I would like to know for myself possibly for future use and also on behalf of my father who is being ravaged
by Shy-Dragers into a mere shell.
Thank you for understanding that we should have the right to choose our end with some dignity left.
Brain

I am so sorry that you are having to make such wrenching decisions. I am not aware of any specific places that will legally help. We have had many such threads about this...if you do an advanced search on this subject...put in the subject assisted suicide, the forum...survivors of suicide...alffe..and you will see them. If you can't I will bump them up.

In spite of the fact that our only son, a healthy 31 yr old man killed himself with a gun over twenty years ago, I do believe in choices for end of live when all quality is gone. Please know that you are never alone. :grouphug:

Thanks. I can find it. Just a message for the people in my traumatic brain injury group who saw me post here. I am not suicidal. My dad has a disease that is referred to as "double Parkinson's disease" DOUBLE. This is hereditary and I am the only other one of my siblings who has the exact same neurological problems as my father. The neurologist I saw is my dad's and they are trying to establish a genetic link with our illness's.
Imagine Michael J. Fox when you see him all shaking and his face is all strained from pain and this is one of his good days if we are seeing him. Now imagine double Parkinson's disease (Shy-Dragers). I personally will not live to the end of that. I don't know how far my dad will want to go. I just want to know there is a humane option. Some of you may think this is an unforgivable sin that we should endure to the end. I don't believe this. I know we have a loving god who gives us free choices without holding it against us.
Brain

Check out
 

The reading under Oregon ORS 127.800-995 and Washington state RCW 70.245 speaks to the issues about which you are curious. Consulting with attorneys licensed to practice in those states may provide answers to questions you are experiencing.

Realizing my father has gone the way of Alzheimers most rapidly I gain pause wondering whether life for the patient continues viable into stage four where my father now subsists; moreover, I am subjected to great misgivings regarding the family capability to financially sustain the patient care as is the situation with my father these years.

Cannot provide a position in these pages whether one should or should not take a particular course of action. Can provide means to research so individuals may attain counsel and realize their own conclusions.

I, for one, have been pondering with trepidation the notion whether to have a genetic test performed to determine my bodily bent toward Alzheimers, if at all. I empathize with you Brain, I truly do.

ARGHHHHH, :hug: :grouphug:

Yes. Thank you Mark. That is what I was looking for. I have heard that Oregon has this option. I did not know about Washington.
I am so sorry that you are going through Alzheimer's with your father. You see exactly what I mean. The cost also is astronomical and how long can it be sustained? I sure hope you are not genetically disposed. How many siblings do you have? There are four of us and I am the only one.
I just want to have the proper things in place for myself. I will not deteriorate to this level or put my loved ones through watching that. Hopefully it won't come to that for you or me.
What about our fathers though? I am certain my dad would want the same thing but is no longer able to make that decision so what do you do? Is it legal if the loved ones decide on this course of action? Right now the situation is still ok (really hard though for me and my mom) but I can see where it is going. Would anyone want to live with a feeding tube and not being able to move or recognize anyone and be totally out of their right minds? How long can that last is the scary part. Years and years? I could really use some support and all your prayers. I admit to feeling a bit suicidal just from what we have gone through this week. I have been the strong one to hold it together for my mom but can see that last night and today it has taken a toll on me heavily. When I read the link Alfie gave about the behaviors of people planning suicide, I have to admit that I have some. Maybe my mind is thinking this without me directly acknowledging it.
:grouphug:
Much love to you all, thank you for talking to me about this with such compassion.
Brain

(((Brain))) I bumped up some links for you. Please read them. :hug:

Mark...
 

would you really want to know? :hug:

Gee I don't really know Alffe
 

You see, there were questions in my life which had gone without clarity of answer for decades, so when of very recent times when my wife and I learned I am a genetic mosaic, that knowledge did drop a long sought piece to the puzzle into place so I could stop the wondering. Now the knowledge is sure and my mind is at peace.

Regarding the pursuit of information whether Alzheimers is within my road map of life, I do not think right this moment I want to deal with the information [if it were to be confirmation of likelihood] because such a finality seems to be the present medical take on the subject. Were the syndrome to become fully understood and care assuredly mapped, I might be much more interested.

Since all of my grandparents succumbed to cancer, for me it would be akin to going through a scan [which I may not as I have an implanted SCS] of the body to learn whether cancer is on my life's roadmap. I can deal with that risk not knowing what lays ahead. In this there is a feeling of hope. Maybe this is where my faith takes over and I am able to yield to another the handling of life's longterm issues while I find myself grateful day to day being able to work in my profession, bring food to table and roof over heads which i could not for years after the wreck which disabled me. Right now, life feels as though a grand blessing to me.

And Brain..... well, I have only the one sibling, who is interested in learning of the prospect of Alzheimers. The test is available and cost less than $400. Maybe they will do it while I hang back in the "wings of the theatre" watching the grand play of life unfold to what it will. Seems the insurance industry, that is what remains of it after the congressional socialization of it, could capitalize on creation and sale of premium based care for loved ones who fall prey to Alzheimers enabling families to avoid financial devastation while caring needfully for their loved one. In the case of my parents, my father remains in their home cared for by my mother. She is daily overwhelmed by the crumbling loss of Dad, her love. We cannot afford for him to live in assisted care because of the Medicare/Medicaid reality of having to sell the family home to realize the equity value which would be paid over to provide for my father; hence, the "keeping" of him at home for daily care, while turning the home into a fortress calculated to create a lockdown safe zone environment for Dad as he fades. Sad, so sad.

Now Brain, as to those wisp of thought threads you have experienced about suicidal ideation. Please contemplate sharing that with your most trusted loved one or ones so they may be vigilant observing the possible advancing need to get care helping you with managing it. I know personally, very personally, the precipice you have seen is there, real, seductively attractive in the depths of any depression you might feel, and the approach to it is NOT protected by guardrails; in fact, it is a Very Steep Slippery Slope.

Do watch out over yourself in all of this, OK?

Love and hugs, for you all :hug: :hug: and for the room :grouphug: :circlelove: :Heart:

Assisted Suicide
 

Read "Final Exit" by Derek Humphry.

I hope you have a living will, something in writing that says that you refuse a feeding tube or any other artificial means of prolonging your life. I guess your father did not have this?
bizi