Feed on
Posts
Comments

The Los Angeles Times printed the following thoughtful article on friends helping each other to die. It has also been syndicated to many other newspapers.

At death’s window – June 25, 2006

By Anne Lamott / Anne Lamott is a novelist and essayist. Her latest book is “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith,” recently released in paperback.

The article commences:

“THE MAN I KILLED did not want to die, but he no longer felt he had much of a choice. He had gone from being tall and strapping, full of appetites and a brilliant manner of speech, to a skeleton, weak and full of messy needs. He and his wife still loved……………”

It can be read in full by clicking on At death’s window

A small update is necessary. The writer refers in the article to “…when my father was dying, we had communicated with the Hemlock Society and I knew exactly how many Seconal pills it took to kill a big person, how to crush them up and add them to apple sauce, and how to feed the sick person toast and tea so he wouldn’t throw up the pills.”

The advice remains correct, but the Hemlock Society disappeared in a welter of mergers. It lasted 1980-2003.

Hemlock’s successor for information is ERGO and for
guidance the Final Exit Network

Contribution by Derek Humphry, president, Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization, Oregon, USA

One Response to “Helping a dying friend to his end”

  1. ronald b says:

    I have had Hepatitis A,B and C for almost 30 years and now at 51 am going though the Pegetron treatment .

    I have suffered from depression all of my adult life, but am moving through with the support of friends, family and education.

    Here is a blog I put together to give a voice for all, that where ever we live we are all the same, no matter of our personal situations. No matter where we live in this world we need to have a form to give our testimonies that we all share the same emotions and need to express our inner thoughts to help each other through difficult times.

    God bless you today and thank-you for your time…and your work.

    Would you consider introducing this blog to others. I would also like to invite you to read it and write your own personal story for others to read and learn from your experiences.

    Ronald B. Mickelson

    2016 Monteray Place,

    Abbotsford, British Columbia,

    Canada V2S 7S2

    http://www.robbing-peter.blogspot.com

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.