“Many of the individuals around the bedside barely know each other, and this becomes an environment of misinformation, mistrust, and hidden agendas about substantial financial and estate issues … as ex-wives and ex-husbands, half siblings who never knew each other, long-time same-sex partners (surprise, who knew?), in-laws, out-laws show up at the bedside.” — Dr. Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
“The legal method I suggest most for a dignified and peaceful death is to stop all treatments, especially antibiotics.”
“Whose wishes for his medical treatment were we to honor? Those of my father back when he was a healthy, highly functioning geneticist? Or those of the simpler, weakened man my father had become?”
“There should be a JLMA form: Just Leave Me Alone, for those of us who concede that we’re actually going to die some day and work to keep our end-times as inexpensive and comfortable as possible.”
Don’t wait until you’re at death’s door to explore your passions, deepen your relationships and find your posse.
“They made the end of his life horrible and painful and humiliating,” Elaine Greenberg said. “What’s the sense of having a living will if it’s not honored?”
A “good” death is one in which you exert maximum autonomy over your end-of-life journey. Here are some checklists for what needs to be done.
“The rest is up to you,” he finally said, ending the conversation for good. He didn’t have any more guidance, and certainly no more patience to talk about it. I was surprised. To me, it felt slightly irresponsible to leave all these decisions to other people.
“Death would not be called bad, O people, if one knew how to truly die.”
— Nanak
A friend’s .357 “solution” reinforced his decision to learn from right-to-die groups.
