Recognizing the importance of psychosocial factors to those considering a hastened death led FEN to more explicitly recognize the importance of psychosocial factors when evaluating an applicant’s medical records. By making psychosocial factors more explicit in our criteria, we honor what truly matters to those who reach out to us.
VSED might not be for everyone, but it is the only chance for some to experience an end to unbearable suffering. Done with careful preparation, medical support, and compassionate caregiving, VSED offers a natural end to life.
“Death would not be called bad, O people, if one knew how to truly die.”
— Nanak
If love is not a disorder, illness, or diagnosis, then neither is grief.
“We reached the goal for patients like me, who aren’t terminal but degenerative, to win this battle, a battle that opens the doors for the other patients who come after me.”
It should be clear, as we argued in the first part of this two-part post, that the word “suicide” is not always appropriate. In this second part of our post, we offer a candidate word.
Patients may not be aware that their health care system is faith-based, and rarely understand the restrictions that their health systems have implemented — until they need this care.
I know well Judaism’s ban on euthanasia. But when I understood that my father would take his own life, I knew without a doubt that I would be by his side.
An iconic philosopher rationalized suicide long before it became a contemporary academic concept.
