Something Does Matter (Sequel to 'Doesn't Matter')
The many kind, supportive, and insightful responses to my last emotions-of-the-moment musing about the assisted death of my cat Cordial have given me more reflective thoughts about the broader issue of human death.
I would like my own death to be as peaceful, short, and painless as the death I accorded Cordial. Strangely, it is difficult to assure I can achieve that since the religious beliefs of some are able, by law, to insist all must obey the religious beliefs of some. If anything is personal in life, our own dying process is certainly one of them. Everyone should have the right to control their own dying process. That is separation of Church and State if anything in that concept has any validity. Each of us should be allowed to die according to our own religious beliefs and situational feelings. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you applies here as it always applies to moral issues. As I would not wish to tell anyone else how they should die, I would not wish others to control how I die. It is about as simple as that.
If I was advised that I had some kind of untreatable blood cancer and only had months to live it should be my decision alone which governs when the end comes and by what means. Not only is it no one else's damn business, but is the right of everyone, for varied reasons, to end their life according to their own dictates. If the State wants to get involved in any way it ought to require periodically updated legal 'living wills' to be signed in case the person is mentally incapacitated at some time in the future. We, as a nation, should put an end to all this family debate as to how and when 'grandma' dies as the end nears. They say something like 1/3 to 2/3 (I forget which) of health care costs are incurred the last three months of a person's life. Perhaps there should be universal health care except the last three months are billed back to the person or family of the person who dies. Of course this sounds outrageous because no one should be forced to die, before they are ready, for financial reasons. I suppose on the surface it is, but one needs to consider that modern medicine has the ability to keep the body functioning in some form or fashion far beyond any natural abilities of the body to live without the massive intervention. We have perfected the art of keeping some cells and organs functioning for longer and longer periods of time. The cost to do this is extravagant---essentially out of sight now.
10 million children die every year from preventable medical causes. The cost per child to prevent this is calculated to be $200. Is it really ethical to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars or even tens of thousands of dollars to keep a dying adult alive for months while having no money available to save the $10 million children? Even $50,000 dollars, a small cost these days to keep the dying alive for a few more months, could save 250 children from death due to preventable medical costs. Okay, you might say a person has a right to say they don't give a damn about the dying children, they want money spent on their parent, their friend, whoever---who lies dying before them. Interestingly, almost without fail, these people who feel that way are not talking about THEIR money. Most all of us, seeing that grandpa could need a lot of medical care, are busy squirreling away his money to safe areas which cannot be tapped for his medical care. After all, we can spend other people's money on grandpa's extended life and save our inheritance too. Not a bad deal. What I am suggesting is that this sort of disingenuous unethical bullshit be ended. A family does have the right to choose extending the life of 'grandpa' over dying children, but then the family should have to pay for the costs. If religious organizations want to support this same mentality, then let them pay for this costly extended life support. Put their money where their mouth is---on the side of selfishness over the common good.
If I choose to end my life as peacefully as Cordial's life was ended, when I have had enough, then that should be how it goes down. These religious 'characters' who feel God is not through with me yet, can take their beliefs and apply them only to themselves. If God wishes me to suffer and I defy His wishes, then I am quite sure God can meet out the appropriate punishment. Furthermore, if I choose to spend my financial portfolio to save the dying children, or other charitable causes, instead of spending it to prolong my own dying process, that should be my choice. I happen to believe that spending vast sums of money to prolong my own dying process instead of spending the money to save the young who have a whole life ahead of them, is clearly an unethical course of action.
It ought to be illegal to put down any human by withdrawing feeding tubes and let them starve to death. It ought to be illegal to remove people from ventilators and let them suffocate to death. This is nothing more than some kind of medieval religious emotional/physical torture. Hardly anyone chooses this for their pet and why the hell is it permissible for humans?
All this 'fucked up' logic about death doesn't come from Jesus or any other prophets, it comes from titled Priests, Ayotollahs, etc creating human dogmas, supposedly delivered from God directly to them. All these human concocted dogmas are a scourge on humanity, and given the problems of population control, environmental degradation, climate change, etc, we need to elevate our mentality beyond these inherited out dated religious dogmas and use the gift of reason, given humans through the God created process of evolution, to save varied forms of life on our planet. Everyone's religion should be the Golden Rule. All the rest is window dressing. Everyone everywhere understands the Golden Rule---the religion of ethics based on reason. Different religious sects can have all the rituals, glittering cathedrals, and peculiarities they choose as long as it is all based on the common universal Golden Rule.
Let us all live a good life and let us all die a good death. Cordial did both. Why can't we all strive for the same?
