Long article by Kevin Drum over assisted suicide. Not really something that can be excerpted, needs to be read in whole. Covers the history of the assisted suicide movement as well as some personal ties to it (he has stage 3 bone cancer and this is something he's considered for the future).

 

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/0...rnia-kevin-drum

 

 

Frontline did a related story a few years back.

Way too ripe for corruption. f*** that.

I recommend watching "Ways to Die in Oregon". It was on Netflix a few months ago. Not sure if it is anymore. I'm all for assisted suicide if it's hopeless for a patient and there's nothing modern medicine can do.

 

I'm all for it with proper safe guards in place.

Damn, I didn't know Kevin Drum had bone cancer.

I am a believer that some people in the medical profession don't care and truly are quacks (too many horror stories from people about their treatments/incorrect diagosis, improper things said to them, etc.) but I will say this ...

If you have an excellent doctor, who happens to care about her/his patients greatly, I believe I am in favor of assisted suicide. I do think doctors (in many instances; maybe all instances?) do know when a patient has no chance and is about to die.

 

For instance when my dad was in the hospital as the cancer took over his lungs, (too much water in there, etc., with no chance of being cured after 2.5 years of chemo and all the regular cancer protocol treatments, etc) the doctor told my brother my dad would likely die at 4:15 a.m. As it hit 4 o'clock we all woke up and were in the hospital room and sure enough he died at 4:15 a.m. It made me think doctors are pretty damn sure (unless they are quacks) when we are finished. That doctor knew the case history and what was going on and knew the exact time he'd die.

 

My dad was on so much morphine he was fine, in no pain, but let's say there is no morphine available for whatever reason, or not enough dosage to keep the patient comfortable? In that case, I think I might be in favor of assisted suicide. If it's time to go and there's no hope, why not let us go on our own terms, with all family present? Something to think about anyway.

 

Now maybe you could get one second opinion or something if you suspect the doctor is a quack, but that guy knew my dad was done and perhaps he should have been allowed to die many hours earlier. Just thinking out loud mainly, here.

Damn, I didn't know Kevin Drum had bone cancer.

Yeah, multiple myeloma. His treatment has been going fairly well, results are less than ideal but still pretty good, but he knows he only as so much time at this point.

 

edit: he actually had an update on his health yesterday because a lot of people (including me) may have been reading a little more into that article than he intended.

In fact, my health is pretty amazingly good right now. Even my back has nearly returned to normal—close enough that I've started up disc golfing again on weekends. Aside from the normal twinges and squeaks of a 57-year-old body, there's nothing wrong with me. The myeloma is basically like having high cholesterol: you know there's some stuff going on inside that's bad and will eventually cause trouble, but in the meantime it isn't causing any problems at all.

Edited January 12, 201610 yr by StrangeSox

Way too ripe for corruption. f*** that.

While they create issues of their own, Oregon and California have pretty stringent standards and there really doesn't appear to be any sort of corruption/abuse.

Yeah, multiple myeloma. His treatment has been going fairly well, results are less than ideal but still pretty good, but he knows he only as so much time at this point.

 

edit: he actually had an update on his health yesterday because a lot of people (including me) may have been reading a little more into that article than he intended.

 

That's good to hear. I don't know that there is a better writer on macro trends for health, environment and how they interact.