littleboxes
Dying In Theory and Practice
We have a few staff members who are not what one might call "fans" of NYT opinion writer Nicholas D. Kristof. However, a few of us really liked his opinion piece in today's New York Times.
Here are some bits and pieces:
Jack Newbold is a 59-year-old retired tugboat captain who is dying of bone cancer. It's one of the most painful cancers, and he doesn't want to put his wife and 17-year-old daughter through the trauma of caring for him as he loses control over his body.
So Mr. Newbold faces a wrenching choice in the coming weeks: should he fight the cancer until his last breath, or should he take a glass of a barbiturate solution prescribed by a doctor and put himself to sleep forever? He's leaning toward the latter.
"I've got less than six months to live," he said. "I don't want to linger and put my wife and family through this."
--snip--
Unfortunately, Mr. Bush is fighting to overturn the Oregon Death With Dignity law, which gives Mr. Newbold the option of hastening his death. Oregon voters twice passed referendums approving the law, which has been used since 1998, and it has wide support in the state.
--snip--
Mr. Newbold, a Vietnam veteran and former merchant seaman, is funny and blunt, with a flair for nautical language unsuitable for a family newspaper. He started with head and neck cancer. Now cancer is spreading to his bones, disabling him and forcing him to take morphine for pain.
"By God, I want to go out on my own terms," Mr. Newbold said. "I don't want someone dictating to me that I've got to lie down in some hospital bed and die in pain."
Mr. Newbold has started the process of obtaining the barbiturates; two doctors must confirm that the patient has less than six months to live, and the patient must make three requests over at least 15 days. Typically, the drug is secobarbital - the powder is removed from the capsules and mixed into water or applesauce - or pentobarbital, which comes as a liquid. Patients typically slip into a coma five minutes after taking the medication and die within two hours.
--snip--
"It's pretty weird knowing what day you're going to die, but we could plan for it," said Julie McMurchie, whose mother used the barbiturates about a week before she was expected to die naturally of lung cancer. "Two of my siblings lived out of state, and they were able to come, so we were all present. ... We were all there to hug and kiss her and tell her we loved her, and she had some poetry she wanted read to her, and it was all loving and peaceful.
----------
This brings up all sorts or difficult questions.
Would you be worried about your family seeing you suffer? Who would you want with you when you died? How do you say goodbye?
Of course, President Bush has obviously thought a lot about these and other questions. After all, he sent hundreds of people to their deaths in Texas. Did Mr. Bush ever wonder what it would be like to have someone else set the date of your death? Surely he thought about how one might say goodbye and what a person might think about in their last hours? Or did he relish the deaths of the convicted criminals he put to death? Did he note that the victims of these crimes often had no chance to know the date of their death and no chance to say goodbye or reflect on their lives? In fact, we know that Mr. Bush has thought about what someone might choose as their last words before being their death. When asked if he knew what the last words of Karla Faye Tucker were he replied that he would guess they were "Please don't kill me, please don't kill me!"
These were not Karla Faye Tucker's last words. These were :
"I would like to say to all of you, the Thornton family and Jerry Dean's family, that I am so sorry. I hope God will give you peace with this." She then whispered a farewell to her husband and thanked the warden for his kindness to her in her last hours.
I am going to be face to face with Jesus now. . . . I love you all very much. I will see you all when you get there. . . . I will wait for you.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ Karla Faye Tucker Brown, d. February 3, 1998
Other famous last words uttered by those about to be executed:
Good people are always so sure they're right.
Executed at San Quentin.
~~ Barbara Graham, d. June 3, 1955
I did not get my Spaghetti-O's, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this.
Executed by injection, Oklahoma.
~~ Thomas J. Grasso, d. March 20, 1995
I am innocent, innocent, innocent. Make no mistake about this. I owe society nothing. I am an innocent man and something very wrong is taking place tonight.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ Lionel Herrera d. May 12, 1993
I love you, mom.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ Clarence Lackey, d. May 20, 1997
Shoot me in the chest!
To his executioners.
~~Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator, d.1945
Hurry it up you Hoosier bastard! I could hang a dozen men while you're screwing around.
Executed by hanging Leavenworth, Kansas.
~~ Carl Panzram, d. September 5, 1930
Capital punishment: them without the capital get the punishment.
Executed in electric chair, Florida.
~~ John Spenkelink, d. May 25, 1979
You are going to hurt me, please don't hurt me, just one more moment, I beg you!
Guillotined.
~~ Madame du Barry, mistress of Louis XV, d. 1793
Take a step forward, lads. It will be easier that way.
Executed by firing squad.
~~ Erskine Childers, Irish patriot, d. November 24, 1922
And some other last words:
Am I dying or is this my birthday?
When she woke briefly during her last illness and found all her family around her bedside.
~~ Lady Nancy Astor, d. 1964
How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden?
~~ P. T. Barnum, entrepreneur, d. 1891
Friends applaud, the comedy is finished.
~~ Ludwig van Beethoven, composer, d. March 26, 1827
I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.
~~ Humphrey Bogart, actor, d. January 14, 1957
'm bored with it all.
Before slipping into a coma. He died 9 days later.
~~ Winston Churchill, statesman, d. January 24, 1965
Damn it . . . Don't you dare ask God to help me.
To her housekeeper, who had begun to pray aloud.
~~ Joan Crawford, actress, d. May 10, 1977
My God. What's happened?
~~ Diana (Spencer), Princess of Wales, d. August 31, 1997
I'd hate to die twice. It's so boring.
~~ Richard Feynman, physicist, d. 1988
I know you have come to kill me. Shoot coward, you are only going to kill a man.
Facing his assassin, Mario Teran, a Bolivian soldier.
~~ Ernesto "Che" Guevara, d. October 9, 1967
Why do you weep. Did you think I was immortal?
~~ Louis XIV, King of France, d. 1715
I've had eighteen straight whiskies, I think that's the record . . .
~~ Dylan Thomas, poet, d. 1953
I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.
~~ Leonardo da Vinci, artist, d. 1519
Go on, get out - last words are for fools who haven't said enough.
To his housekeeper, who urged him to tell her his last words so she could write them down for posterity.
~~ Karl Marx, revolutionary, d. 1883
Here are some bits and pieces:
Jack Newbold is a 59-year-old retired tugboat captain who is dying of bone cancer. It's one of the most painful cancers, and he doesn't want to put his wife and 17-year-old daughter through the trauma of caring for him as he loses control over his body.
So Mr. Newbold faces a wrenching choice in the coming weeks: should he fight the cancer until his last breath, or should he take a glass of a barbiturate solution prescribed by a doctor and put himself to sleep forever? He's leaning toward the latter.
"I've got less than six months to live," he said. "I don't want to linger and put my wife and family through this."
--snip--
Unfortunately, Mr. Bush is fighting to overturn the Oregon Death With Dignity law, which gives Mr. Newbold the option of hastening his death. Oregon voters twice passed referendums approving the law, which has been used since 1998, and it has wide support in the state.
--snip--
Mr. Newbold, a Vietnam veteran and former merchant seaman, is funny and blunt, with a flair for nautical language unsuitable for a family newspaper. He started with head and neck cancer. Now cancer is spreading to his bones, disabling him and forcing him to take morphine for pain.
"By God, I want to go out on my own terms," Mr. Newbold said. "I don't want someone dictating to me that I've got to lie down in some hospital bed and die in pain."
Mr. Newbold has started the process of obtaining the barbiturates; two doctors must confirm that the patient has less than six months to live, and the patient must make three requests over at least 15 days. Typically, the drug is secobarbital - the powder is removed from the capsules and mixed into water or applesauce - or pentobarbital, which comes as a liquid. Patients typically slip into a coma five minutes after taking the medication and die within two hours.
--snip--
"It's pretty weird knowing what day you're going to die, but we could plan for it," said Julie McMurchie, whose mother used the barbiturates about a week before she was expected to die naturally of lung cancer. "Two of my siblings lived out of state, and they were able to come, so we were all present. ... We were all there to hug and kiss her and tell her we loved her, and she had some poetry she wanted read to her, and it was all loving and peaceful.
----------
This brings up all sorts or difficult questions.
Would you be worried about your family seeing you suffer? Who would you want with you when you died? How do you say goodbye?
Of course, President Bush has obviously thought a lot about these and other questions. After all, he sent hundreds of people to their deaths in Texas. Did Mr. Bush ever wonder what it would be like to have someone else set the date of your death? Surely he thought about how one might say goodbye and what a person might think about in their last hours? Or did he relish the deaths of the convicted criminals he put to death? Did he note that the victims of these crimes often had no chance to know the date of their death and no chance to say goodbye or reflect on their lives? In fact, we know that Mr. Bush has thought about what someone might choose as their last words before being their death. When asked if he knew what the last words of Karla Faye Tucker were he replied that he would guess they were "Please don't kill me, please don't kill me!"
These were not Karla Faye Tucker's last words. These were :
"I would like to say to all of you, the Thornton family and Jerry Dean's family, that I am so sorry. I hope God will give you peace with this." She then whispered a farewell to her husband and thanked the warden for his kindness to her in her last hours.
I am going to be face to face with Jesus now. . . . I love you all very much. I will see you all when you get there. . . . I will wait for you.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ Karla Faye Tucker Brown, d. February 3, 1998
Other famous last words uttered by those about to be executed:
Good people are always so sure they're right.
Executed at San Quentin.
~~ Barbara Graham, d. June 3, 1955
I did not get my Spaghetti-O's, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this.
Executed by injection, Oklahoma.
~~ Thomas J. Grasso, d. March 20, 1995
I am innocent, innocent, innocent. Make no mistake about this. I owe society nothing. I am an innocent man and something very wrong is taking place tonight.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ Lionel Herrera d. May 12, 1993
I love you, mom.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ Clarence Lackey, d. May 20, 1997
Shoot me in the chest!
To his executioners.
~~Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator, d.1945
Hurry it up you Hoosier bastard! I could hang a dozen men while you're screwing around.
Executed by hanging Leavenworth, Kansas.
~~ Carl Panzram, d. September 5, 1930
Capital punishment: them without the capital get the punishment.
Executed in electric chair, Florida.
~~ John Spenkelink, d. May 25, 1979
You are going to hurt me, please don't hurt me, just one more moment, I beg you!
Guillotined.
~~ Madame du Barry, mistress of Louis XV, d. 1793
Take a step forward, lads. It will be easier that way.
Executed by firing squad.
~~ Erskine Childers, Irish patriot, d. November 24, 1922
And some other last words:
Am I dying or is this my birthday?
When she woke briefly during her last illness and found all her family around her bedside.
~~ Lady Nancy Astor, d. 1964
How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden?
~~ P. T. Barnum, entrepreneur, d. 1891
Friends applaud, the comedy is finished.
~~ Ludwig van Beethoven, composer, d. March 26, 1827
I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.
~~ Humphrey Bogart, actor, d. January 14, 1957
'm bored with it all.
Before slipping into a coma. He died 9 days later.
~~ Winston Churchill, statesman, d. January 24, 1965
Damn it . . . Don't you dare ask God to help me.
To her housekeeper, who had begun to pray aloud.
~~ Joan Crawford, actress, d. May 10, 1977
My God. What's happened?
~~ Diana (Spencer), Princess of Wales, d. August 31, 1997
I'd hate to die twice. It's so boring.
~~ Richard Feynman, physicist, d. 1988
I know you have come to kill me. Shoot coward, you are only going to kill a man.
Facing his assassin, Mario Teran, a Bolivian soldier.
~~ Ernesto "Che" Guevara, d. October 9, 1967
Why do you weep. Did you think I was immortal?
~~ Louis XIV, King of France, d. 1715
I've had eighteen straight whiskies, I think that's the record . . .
~~ Dylan Thomas, poet, d. 1953
I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.
~~ Leonardo da Vinci, artist, d. 1519
Go on, get out - last words are for fools who haven't said enough.
To his housekeeper, who urged him to tell her his last words so she could write them down for posterity.
~~ Karl Marx, revolutionary, d. 1883
posted by littleboxes at 11:12 AM
5 Comments:
ah, nicky boy kristof is at it again...but your staff members are right - his head isn't nearly as far up his ass as it normally is. the strange thing about a representative democracy is that the president is accountable to everyone, including the man dying of bone cancer, but he is also accountable to no one, simply due to the sheer bureaucracy of the government. so the president need not see the human aspect of a lot of differnt policies, if he so chooses, and he can exploit them whenever he needs to reach out to the public.
btw, why didn't bjorn call me this weekend? was he out cavorting with some other woman? :(
because he was out running w/ me. see http://annarborroadscholars.blogspot.com/2005/07/wanted-running-partners.html
Kristof neglects to tell his readers that the Supreme Court has already ruled on physican-assisted suicide and the so-called "right-to-die". In Washington v. Glucksberg (1997), the Supreme Court ruled that there is no constitutional right to commit suicide and that allowing physicans to prescribe lethal doses of drugs would lead us towards the "slippery slope" of euthanasia.
And by the way, the Supreme Court voted unanimously (9-0) to uphold existing the statutes to preserve life and outlaw physician-assisted suicide. A unanimous decision--that's every Supreme Court justice from Ginsburg to Scalia. How often do we see such broad consensus on the Supreme Court?
Yes the supreme court has made decisions in the past. And yes sometimes they are 9-0 decisions.
However, every American has the right go disagree with the Supreme Court. All the court is supposed to do is uphold the law. Since Congress can change the laws, the court is certainly not the last word.
Most of us see no problem with someone with terminal cancer ending their own life. It is the most personal of choices and why the government should intervene in it is beyond most of us.
However, there are a few staff members who believe that it should not be allowed under any circumstances. But they would still be against suicide even if the supreme court came out against it.
Yet, we would like to thank Da Man for commenting. We welcome all reasonable dialogue and what was written was not unreasonable.
I would like to add that I was not making a statement about suicide itself, but on physician-assisted suicide. Personally, I am somewhat ambivalent towards suicide. But when we send an open invitation to physicians to violate their oaths to the profession and take a giant step towards euthanasia--that's where I feel we need to draw the line.
My understanding is that there are organizations such as the Hemlock Society that help people end their lives. Perhaps Mr. Newbold should seek their advice.
Post a Comment
<< Home