What does ‘dying with dignity’ mean for you?
Many people want to spend their last days at home. However, this is often not possible for terminally ill people.
Have you ever cared for or accompanied a family member or a friend until their death? If you were in this situation, what would you wish for? What does a dignified death mean to you?
My dad died two years ago, 89 years ago. 20 days before his death he had severe back pain. Hospitalized for tests, he was diagnosed with cancer with several metastases on the spine and the doctors told our family members that if we wanted we could take him home. I was with him for the last 18 days while he was undergoing pain therapy. True, he has reached a good age, but vitality is the strength he had...
Being with a loved one in his last days changes you in a way.
Having your loved ones close to the last minute... a dignified death.
And sometimes I think of people who have diseases that force them to live in bed, maybe for years and slowly they die out, and maybe they would like to leave. I think they have the right to choose how they die, to choose a decent death, and someone should be able to give it to them without profit.
Mio papà è morto due anni fa, 89anni. 20 giorni prima di morire ha accusato dei dolori fortissimi alla schiena. Ricoverato per accertamenti gli è stato diagnosticato un cancro con diverse metastasi sulla colonna vertebrale e i medici hanno detto a noi familiari che se volevamo potevamo portarlo a casa. Io sono stato con lui gli ultimi 18 giorni mentre era sottoposto a terapia del dolore. È vero, è arrivato a una bella età, ma la vitalità è la forza che aveva...
Stare con un proprio caro negli ultimi suoi giorni in un certo senso ti cambia.
Avere vicino i tuoi cari fino all'ultimo.. una morte dignitosa.
E a volte penso a persone che hanno patologie tali che le obbliga immobili a letto, magari per anni e piano piano si spengono, e forse vorrebbero andarsene. Io penso che abbiano il diritto di scegliere come morire, di scegliere una morte dignitosa, e qualcuno dovrebbe poterglielo dare senza lucrare.
Death is an inevitable fact. Even if his method of attachment to a person is different, his death does not mean that his death is the end of a holy death. It is the mention of a person in this world that continues throughout time
الموات هو حقيقه لا مفر منها حتي لو اختلف طريقته التعلق مع شخص لا يعني ان موته نهايه الموت الكريم هو ذكر الإنسان في هذا العالم التي تستمر علي مر الزمان
I'm the wife of a Swiss man whom I married in 2018, living in the Lugano area. I originate from America, where not all of the states have rights to die with dignity: rather, peaceful, self-directed exit is a "state's rights" issue.
I've been a member of EXIT since 2018, from which year I saw my parents slowly disintegrate due to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. My father recently died, thankfully, and by the grace of G-d, after 7 years of a vegetative, bedridden state of Alzheimer's. My mother's tremors make it impossible to care for herself and she wants to die before the cognitive effects of her Parkinson's disease set in but there is no facility for this in the state in which she resides.
Let's all be grateful for the opportunity to die with dignity in Switzerland, rather than to have to suffer years, potentially decades, of physical and mental pain, insufficiency and dependence. Thanks to the rights I now have here in my new home country, I will not be forced to suffer these indignities, should the need arise. Yet another thing CH "got right"!
1. Why would terminally ill people not be allowed to die in the place of their choosing (usually their homes) when they are terminally ill? They should be allowed to choose that legally
2. Having a choice to die "on demand" would be a good thing if all the mental checks, financials impacts, foul play potentials are all checked out for each case. This should be allowed legally. Abuse must be minimised through clever and stringent processing.
It is good to know that there is another non-medical palliative home in Switzerland. And it is encouraging to see, that this model of care is possible in an urban setting.
The Tenna Hospice is deeply rooted in a remote mountain valley in Grisons – where many people are closely related and where neighbourly assistance and care are part of the cultural DNA.
These mountain folks wish to stay in their familiar surroundings, and not move to an urban hospital with all the technical and medical infrastructure. They want to live – until they die, and not be treated, so they can eventually die.
Dying in dignity has much to do with being and remaining in close relationship.
Our mom lived for 93 years. She survived the Patriotic War and the hunger strike of 1946 - 1947. During the hunger strike they ate weeds ( weeds), she remembered it all the time. To die a dignified death is not a simple question. Mom was a participant of the Great Patriotic War 1941 - 1945. In Ukraine Human Rights today is the Soviet Law (Gulag), in fact. There is no Rome Statute. Ukraine should be helped to join the European family of nations.
Наша мама прожила 93 года. Она пережила Отечественную войну и голод 1946 - 1947 годов. В голод ели сорняки ( бурьян ), она вспомнила об этом всё время. Умереть достойной смертью это вопрос не простой. Мама была Участником Великой Отечественной войны 1941 - 1945 годов. В Украине Права Человека сегодня это Советское Право ( ГУЛАГ ), по факту. Римского Статута нет. Украине надо помочь присоединятся к Европейской семье народов.
I have taken care (high quality palliative care) of several people during their last journey and almost all of them had put their trust for life and death long bevor in Gods hand (the creator god) - I could encourage them to articulate their wishes to him and i was able to witness how gracious he took them home. Dignity for me has something to do with destiny and fulfilment of ones journey.
My parents were living in Australia and had 10 years earlier decided that they wanted to take control of their deaths.
My father joined Exit and exchanged information with other like-minded people from all around the world. This ability to obtain the information he searched was imperative for both his and my mother's peace of mind.
They had shared their plans with me and my family here in Switzerland but felt that it would have been impossible to share this information with my siblings in Australia. That they would not understand, that they would intervene and that there would be legal implications for them.
Their departure ended up being rushed and they were unable to do it in the calm and peaceful manner they'd hoped. My siblings, even 2 years later are livid with our parents and at me for not stopping them from carrying through their plans.
To me, dying with dignity means that we should all have the choice how we depart, we should be able to share these plans with all loved ones without fear of police intervention and judgement.
I appreciate your story. I too see Switzerland as a destination that provides choice and dignity and will contact Exit to set up my plans until Australia can mature into a Switzerland.
Do you have more details to share?
Thank you for sharing your story and that you had to suffer from their lack of understanding, as well as respect. May they have peace.
mmmm.... probably no problem for me, as my father, two brothers and one sister all died of a heart attack. Quick and rather painless (I think)... we shall see... (probably)...
If you don't want to have to think about a decent death, you should think about a decent life.
I'm sorry.
Чтобы не пришлось думать о достойной смерти, следует подумать о достойной жизни.
Извините.
A dignified death should always be assured to every person who self-determines with responsibility and awareness. Especially when health problems, as a rule severe, make life difficult with no possibility of recovering a decent quality of life, the choice to end suffering is dignified. Personally, I would like to be an active player in the decision to end my life, always lived joyfully, happily, even in the tragic moments, which are part of life itself. Fortunately, there are organizations in Switzerland that assist people who have decided to end their lives. Who, more than oneself, can determine if and when it is the best time to self-determine?
Una morte dignitosa dovrebbe essere sempre assicurata a ogni persona che si autodetermina con responsabilità e consapevolezza. Specialmente quando problemi di salute, di regola gravi, rendono la vita difficile senza possibilità di recuperare una qualità di vita decente, la scelta di porre fine alla sofferenza è dignitoso. Personalmente vorrei essere attore attivo della decisione di porre termine alla mia vita, vissuta sempre con gioia, felicemente, anche nei momenti tragici, che fanno parte della vita stessa. Per fortuna in Svizzera esistono organizzazioni che assistono le persone che hanno deciso di porre termine alla propria esistenza. Chi, più di sé stesso, può stabilire se e quando è giunto il momento migliore per autodeterminarsi?
>> Have you ever endured the death of a family member, friend, or acquaintance? How did it make you feel?
>> What does death with dignity mean to you?
Although not a friend or family member, I remember well a news story from a few years ago. It was about a young man, still in junior high school, who committed suicide, leaving a suicide note saying that he wanted to end the fun. I remember that it made a strange kind of sense to me. I remember thinking, "I want to die a death that I am 100% satisfied with, without being influenced by others," even if I am in pain and suffering. This is my idea of death with dignity.
>>If you were in such a situation, what would you want?
I would want euthanasia. If I had lived a healthier life, I might be thinking about the things I have left to do, but at the end of life, it's just a matter of whether or not I accept the pain. At least, I am not a person who can find any meaning in suffering.
>> あなたは、家族や友人、知人を看取ったことがありますか？どのようなことを感じましたか？
>>あなたにとって尊厳ある死とは何ですか？
友人や家族ではないが、私は数年前のあるニュースをよく覚えている。まだ中学生の若者が「楽しいままで終わらせたいから」と遺書を残して自殺したというものだ。妙に納得したのを覚えている。「他者の影響を受けずに自分で100％納得して向かえた死」例え痛みや苦痛に苛まれていたとしても。これが私の考える尊厳ある死だ。
>>また、もしあなたがそのような状況になったら、何を望みますか？
安楽死を望む。もっと健康的に生きていれば、やり残したことが、と思い悩むかもしれないがもはや終末期となれば苦痛を受け入れるかそうでないかでしかない。少なくとも私は苦痛に苛まれることに何か意義を見出せる人間ではない。
Death is the end of an individual's life, the last stop in the normal course of life. Fear of death does not prevent it.
The quality of life should be far more important than the absolute length of life. So when it comes to the point where I cannot take care of myself, I will try to end my life. That is my understanding of dying with dignity.
It must be made clear that there is no right or wrong here, and everyone must have the right to make their own decisions without coercion from governments, organizations, or others.
死亡是个体生命的终结，是正常生命过程的最后一站。害怕死亡并不能阻止它的到来。
生命的质量应该远比生命的绝对长度更重要。所以到了生活无法自理时，我会设法终结自己的生命。这就是我对有尊严死去的理解。
必须说明，这里无所谓对错，每个人都必须有权做出自己的决定，不受政府，组织或其他人的胁迫。
I feel the same way. I believe that there is such an option in Switzerland where one can get into a pod, press a button and die peacfully with dignity and no pain. I have so expressed my wish to my son so that before I lose my cognitive function, this will be done. I know of too many cases of people dragging on with indignity not to mention agony and suffering inflicted to their family.
I believe that everyone must have the right to make their own decisions without coercion from governments, organizations, or others. Unfortunately, that is not the case in America. The regulation in a couple of states is so onerous and time consuming adding to the pains and suffering of those with incurable diseases.
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