My father died at home after a fairly lengthy battle with cancer which was known to be hopeless from the beginning. By the time his disease was discovered it had metastisized throughout his body and he was offered chemo that would allow him to live a bit longer in reasonable comfort. He did this, and when it ceased to work, was offered another form of chemo which would have made him sick constantly. He refused.

He received home care from hospice workers and was not in any serious discomfort until a few hours before he died, when he began coughing up blood uncontrollably and was in obvious pain. My sister (registered nurse) called hospice to ask if we could increase his morphine and was told to double the dosage. She did so and he died quite comfortably some hours later.

I don't know if the morphine hastened his demise--I do not believe so. It was time, and the only choice was letting him die in great pain or letting him die in relative comfort. We were able to choose the latter.

Thankfully, he did not die in a hospital surrounded by "extraordinary measures". Chances are he would have been kept semi-conscious, full of tubes, and in great pain for as long as possible or until all of the money that has allowed my mother to live quite comfortably was gone. What purpose would that have served?

I have an Advance Directive, a DNR order, and other similar papers. I will die someday, as will we all. I have no desire for my death to be any more prolonged than necessary, or for it to enrich, as was said below, the health care system. As the health care system is becoming nationalized, it is about to become the largest "collection agency" in America.

My mother had a living will. We sat with her for six days while she was on morphine. The hospital was not at all happy with us or her. Also, my sister is a Christian and brought her minister to attempt a deathbed conversion. But mostly, for what it was, it was all right. She woke up to die with her eyes open, the way she lived her life. When we cleaned out her apartment, I found a candle that had been burned at both ends. A month later, we had a memorial service for her.

My wife asked me about my living will. I thought of the words of Queen Elizabeth I of England: "All I own for one more day."

As we commiserate here, we also need to be cognizant of the fact that pulling the plug on you can be the government's answer to rising healthcare costs.

That is why philosophy in general and the philosophy of Objectivism in particular are highly important and deeply consequential. Euthanasia and abortion are tough issues. Most people have emotional reactions which they then justify, as opposed to standing back from the problem and reasoning from facts to a testable assertion.

I believe that it is in one of the "Arguably" essays that Christopher Hitchens criticized liberals and feminists who want to deny that a fetus is a human being. Abortion remains an option. But be aware of your choices. And whose choice it is.

The same applies to euthanasia. You need to know whom you trust. And you need to make that explicit now while you can. You also need to make your own plans as life takes its course.

My wife and I lived for ten years in a village of 3000. One of the couples we knew was very old. A few days after she died, he passed away. No one asked any questions.

Raising our daughter, we read a lot of Greek myths for bedtime stories. Baucis and Philemon still brings tears.

I read that yesterday. That was really sad. =/

How come so many people are still against euthanasia? A man can't even be allowed to die peacefully these days.

My father passed away back in 2006. Alzheimers was setting in, just like it had for his older brother and sister. Luckily, instead of it dragging on until he could no longer comprehend things, he had a stroke in the middle of the night. He did not have to suffer much, but I feel for my brother, as he was living with my father and is the one who found his body in the morning. My father did not progress in the disease like my uncle and I saw what it did to him, with his mind capacity and loss of ability to take care of himself. I do not wish that on anyone.

Thanks for posting about this article/blog. I'm going through the same exact thing with my Dad (he's 93) and it is heart wrenching. I've been through it before with my Mom and an Aunt who was a second mother to me, so I know the score. I know the endless hours of sitting and watching them suffer. We wouldn't do that to our pets, yet by law, we have to do it to our loved ones. It's just not right. Death is NOT the worst thing that can happen to you.

No one has the right to tell anyone they have to live. (Those were my exact words at my last book club meeting when we were discussing a book about assisted suicide. Everybody else sat on the fence, "Oh I don't want to judge...sometimes these things happen for a reason...the bible says...isn't it illegal?... I just don't know.." Ugh..what's WRONG with people that they don't think we own ourselves??? As my Mom likes to say, "There are worse things than dying."
That was quite a read...I'm glad he wrote it.

Why is it illegal to euthanasia? It is government control. My living will has people named that will make the decision, if I cannot. My will calls for with holding stuff, so that I will die and not be hooked up to machines. BUT you have to have the paper work all in place.

We are all just livestock. As long as the "estate" has money to sustain us the medical professionals and insurance companies will be willing to take $5k to $10k per month from us. Aging people are big bucks most of the time. Of course, if you're in retirement and just living on Social Security good luck. You'll just get a bunch of pills and be told to go home and wait it out.

I think I have a unique approach to all this, even for an Objectivist. The excess funds required to care for the elderly and the children in need can only exist with a very robust economy - lots of prosperity. Otherwise, we get what we've got.

Remember...livestock. That will put it all in perspective.

More unfortunate but inevitable consequences of living in a political system not based on self ownership.

Uncle Pete checked out of the vegetable farm on Tuesday after two years and $300K of taxpayer attention. He was a noble soul and tried to take his own life three years ago. His wife committed him to a Psych ward ($100K) which passed him on to the farm.

Most families have an Uncle Pete, or will. A living will is helpful, but this is only a band-aid. Even in Galt's Gulch, it would be an excruciating decision to give Uncle Pete the trigger for the morphine drip.

Fortunately, it's not difficult for a competent Striker to obtain a drip rig or to invade one.

We all know from the writings of Isaac Asimov, Margaret Sanger and other writers about the economics of euthansia and abortion. The critical policy decision hinges on whether to dissipate Uncle Pete's assets through the health care system or through his heirs.

Thanks.

If I can add to this... watching a number of relatives die from pretty bad diseases... IF you're in that position of facing a long cold dirt nap, LET PEOPLE KNOW whats going on and what you want. THEN take care of business... if you have stuff you want to go to family members, etc... DO IT NOW, before you become non compis mentis or have a caregiver (or worse, trusted relative) rewrite your will and have you sign it under morphine (or worse)... to loot your life. We saw this happen firsthand to a close friend, and the business was left like 20th century motors... Of course, the dying person wanted the business to be split equally to the kids and surviving spouse and stay afloat, but the spouse wanted it all to sell off and play rich suburbanite... and hired an expensive lawyer to make it happen... Ugly situation that could have been avoided early on, rather than have it all fall apart, had the dying person been upfront to all involved and had everyone involved, not just the Conjob Cuffy-esque spouse that could have been stopped (or idled back)... It was both ugly, and avoidable...

A difficult story for me to read. My father had several strokes. During the first two weeks he lost all cognitive abilities. His autonomic functions kept going but his mind was gone. He did not have his papers in order. The hospital tried to cure his minor ailments... anything to jack up the bill... They had him on life support for many weeks. He suffered what he would have thought as the ultimate indignity.

Please, people, get your papers in order. Do not leave the family in the position of having to jump through hoops for power of attorney or have them decide your wishes.
I know what my father would have wanted and the other family agreed, but in the back of your mind you will always feel the weight of decisions that proper papers would have avoided.