“If we are trying to design a ‘good death’ we could well cause ourselves more suffering.” — Roshi Joan Halifax
“So you think you’re free. You are part of a democratic society, so you have the freedom of choice in how you live – and die. Well, you don’t.”
“Is it quality of life? Is it living as long as you can? Is it being comfortable? Those are the kinds of things that I wish we had talked about.”
“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.”
“Try to cherish that last goodbye. That one last opportunity to connect with your loved one while still earthly creatures. They are saying their last goodbyes, with love in their hearts.”
“We live in a culture that’s intensely driven by productivity, accomplishments, and academic achievements. In doing this, we’ve forgotten about our wise ones, the storytellers, the original wisdom keepers, the Elders.”
“‘Don’t let the patient die’… is that the right thing or the wrong thing for a given patient? It is time for physicians to think that through more completely and allow, perhaps, a different answer.”
Jewish law states the dying are to be considered, for legal purposes, “like one who is alive for every purpose”, capable of wielding the same power over their lives until their very last moments, as they did in their days of health.
Don’t wait until you’re at death’s door to explore your passions, deepen your relationships and find your posse.
It’s time that we revise and refine our cultural lexicon around this emergent end-of-life practice. A medically assisted death definitively warrants a linguistic and conceptual category of its own.