Why do most people want to live so long?
I understand, as Aristotle said, that the first principle of life is to live — whether you are a germ, a plant or a human being. However, being a rational person who has led a long fruitful life, I would like to end this life gracefully.
We’re all going to die — or as gentle people like to say these days, “to pass” — so why not have some control over it as we’ve liked to control our living, especially should we develop a terminal illness giving us six months or less left?
“It’s a Wonderful World,” as Louie Armstrong sang so well. “Live abundantly,” Jesus advised, promising to help. However, there comes a time when “the end is near.” This life can become a “valley of tears,” as a prominent prayer puts it. For some, it comes with old age, usually after 80. For others, it comes with an illness such as cancer or heart disease. But for all, death will come. I’d like to have a say in how all this ends.
That medical advancements have extended our lives so long is a mixed blessing. Quality of life does not extend as far. More and more people live with pain, limited movement, and stunted intellectual and emotional fulfillment. It’s just going to get worse as advances continue. Is endless extension good for us as individuals or society? I, carefully, say no.
Today, in seven U.S. states and the District of Columbia, the government allows people to have some say in how they end their lives. A number of European countries, along with Canada and other nations, have legal, medically assisted options for people. In the early Greek democracies, you could even buy hemlock in the everyday marketplace.
The Minnesota Legislature has had bills introduced on this issue, but so far none has advanced. Yet as ever more people live longer in pain, running up ever more expenses for families, for Medicare and for Medicaid, most if not all states will follow Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana and the District of Columbia. The large majority of Americans (68 percent in two independent polls, Gallup and Life Way Research in 2015 and 2016) favor medical assistance at the end of life.
The late physicist Stephen Hawking said, “To keep someone alive against their will is the ultimate indignity.” But he also said, “I’m in no hurry to die. I still have work to do.”
The cartoon Pearls before Swine wisely said that when we cannot help each other or laugh along the way, it’s time to go.
For me, now that I’m 81 and in my “bonus years,” I hope that when the time comes that I cannot work, or help others, or laugh along the way, I will have the courage to take any medically assisted option the state offers to end my life expeditiously and with as little pain all around as possible.
The Catholic Church calls St. Joseph the “patron saint of the happy death.” I think religions and secular authorities should teach us how to “pass” rather than prolong the last months of our time here on Earth. Both the individual and society would have less suffering, and we’d have more resources to invest in the young who have full lives ahead of them.
There are essentially two options before us — one is to convey the idea that it’s OK to allow yourself to die by not eating and drinking. The other is to intervene with medical assistance.
I believe we should save ourselves a lot of time and debate with a compromise. None other than U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has said he wants to die in his own bed, by refusing nourishment and water, but stopping short of lethal medical aid. I believe Minnesota should embrace that idea of a “happy death” and share it with the remaining 43 states.
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A slightly different version of this op-ed appeared in the Minneapolis StarTribune newspaper and is reprinted here with permission of the author.
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Joe Selvaggio is 81, lives in Minneapolis, and is a former Dominican priest. He now serves as board chair of MicroGrants, a program that provides $1,000 grants to low-income individuals, mostly in the Minneapolis-St. Paul and Naples, Florida areas. The grants are designed to help people increase their income either through small business development or finding and retaining stable employment. The grants help eliminate poverty through work. Investments are usually made in three areas: education, small business development, and transportation. Over 700 grants were made in 2016.
Throughout Joe’s forty-plus-year career, he has received numerous honors, including Founder of Project for Pride in Living-1972; Doctorate of Humane Letters, honoris causa (Macalester College)-1991; Minnesotan of the Year (Minneapolis Monthly)-1997; Huffington Post’s Greatest Person of the Day (Huffington Post)-2011.
Many Catholics share Joe’s views about end-of-life issues. According to a 2016 survey by LifeWay Research, 70% of Catholics agree with the statement: “When a person is facing a painful terminal disease, it is morally acceptable to ask for a physician’s aid in taking his or her own life.”
Joe Selvaggio makes excellent points. That he is person who has devoted his life to helping others and sharing laughs just makes his thinking even more welcome to me. Thanks, Joe, and thanks to the editor of this blog, who has an excellent eye!
There is a segment who have undiagnosed misery. That is, the allopathic system cannot come up with any diagnosis that would predict “passing over” within six months, nor can it provide quality of life. We wallow in disability and it matters not whether we “still have things to do” because we cannot do them. Those of us in that situation fall between the cracks, and unless we choose a self-inflicted option, we are stuck in our misery. The options need to be less tyrannical (I used that word on purpose) than the existing criteria for medically assisted crossing over, which depend on a medical system geared towards only believing itself. “We cannot define a cause for your symptoms; we don’t know what is wrong with you and therefore have no prediction of a six month window for your death. Nor can we help you to live even a quasi-normal life.”
Joe Selvaggio has been a gift to the people of Minneapolis for over 50 years, as he says, “helping people help themselves.” Support for death with dignity from such a legendary, tireless advocate for the poor will, I think, move the needle on this issue here in Minnesota.
By the way, Joe was a Dominican priest, not a Jesuit.
Thank you for that correction. I confirmed this biographical information with Joe and corrected the article.
We should all have the right to a “happy death”, or even just a plain, peaceful one. It seems that voluntarily refusing water or food works, but I cannot imagine this is eaither peaceful or happy…it sounds like days of suffering are in store. I am one of so many people who live in pain, suffering the torture of 24/7 shrieking tinnitus, which will never be terminal, as well as other, non-fatal but miserable medical conditions. Why must we suffer the consequences of other people’s fear of death? There are many fates worse than death.
Here is Canada we don’t have a six month rule, we have had people choose medical aid in dying for osteoarthritis and just plain old age, being over 90. That being said, I watched my neighbour starve and dehydrate to death, so you basically die of hypoxia. It was horrible to watch, not peaceful and I developed PTSD afterwards to the point where I joined Dignitas. It’s certainly overrated as a way to go. If I lived in the US I would just use a handgun. Our boundaries of what qualifies here in Canada is being expanded every year as people file lawsuits because our law is more restrictive than our Supreme Court decision on the issue. Our Supreme Court came up with a very broad ruling, so one of the most flexible in the world. Unfortunately our government has tried to obfuscate.
One reason for the name of this blog is that the Final Exit Network supports a good death for all. Any violent death would not fall into that category. I would encourage you and anyone else considering a violent death to seek counseling from a suicide hotline service before thinking any more about such a course of action.
I agree that violent means (guns, jumping off a bridge…) are not good ways to go. I saw a video done by the New York Times where an ex-priest was in a hospital surrounded by friends and family saying his final good byes. Then the doctors wheeled him off in a gurney to be “put to sleep.” That’s the way I want to go. That’s an option we should be pushing for. It would be like checking in for the anesthetic before cataract surgery, but not coming back.
Yes. Anesthetize me. When I’m no longer able to do the things that give my life meaning. When I’m in constant pain from osteoporosis. When I’m unable to tend to my own hygiene. I would like to be done. There must be a way for this to happen for those of us who want it. It should be a road that any of us could take.
If I had a legal document, written now, (I’m 68) stating that when I’m suffering, have lost all joy in life because I can no longer read or knit or draw or play piano, I would like a medication to assist me with an exit. Slippery slope? It’s complicated, isn’t it.