Two Views, One Exit
Two participants, one an exit guide and one a friend, look at the same voluntary exit and report their experiences, emotions.
OK, I Want to Exit. What’s Next?
John Abraham explains the process to receive educational and training services from the Final Exit Network if you are considering a self-controlled death.
The six-months-to-live prognosis limitation in RTD laws makes FEN necessary
More jurisdictions are accepting physician-assisted death (PAD). What does this mean for Final Exit Network? Are we becoming less relevant, or more? FEN President Janis Landis addresses these questions.
“Framing” the right-to-die for the United States
Recently, Derek Humphry wrote about the words we use to discuss end-of-life concerns in the US, focusing on the appropriateness of the term "suicide." He did so, in part, to stimulate a discussion about the words we use. Like Humphry, I have no personal problem with the use of the term suicide–it accurately describes death by our own hand–but I resist it for several reasons.
If Jane had a social worker . . .
Thanks to everyone who made suggestions to deal with Jane's presumptive problems (see previous post). If Jane had an independent social worker–one not in her healthcare system–that person might respond to Jane's difficulties with something like the following:
Disability and the right to live and die on our own terms
Lamar Hankins discusses how the disabled are devalued and prevented from having the same rights non-disabled people have. What a person considers a fulfilling life should be decided by each person, not by the opinion of any other person, including by someone who is disabled.
FEN Needs Volunteers
Huck DeVenzio, FEN's Newsletter Editor, explains the role of volunteers within FEN and the need for volunteers.
Opposition to medical-assistance-in-dying–Part 2
In Part 1 of this series, I addressed ten criticisms of MAID laws, particularly those in Oregon and Washington, though most such laws are modeled largely on Oregon's law. In Part 2, I look at criticisms of MAID laws concerning economic pressures, coercion, depression, inadequate resources for MAID clients, doctor shopping, inadequate Medicaid rules, ableism, and the failure of the drugs prescribed to MAID clients. My hope is that we can learn from opponents of MAID laws how to make the laws better.
Opposition to medical-assistance-in-dying–Part 1
With this post, I begin a multi-part series about the views of those who oppose medical-assistance-in-dying (MAID) or have written critically about MAID laws. I think there are some good ideas that we can learn from these critics to help us improve MAID laws, though that is not their intent. They will oppose MAID under any law, no matter how carefully written.
Fashioning an advance directive for dementia
This post lays out a process for making a dementia directive to be used when or if we become unable to make our own views known because of mental incapacity. If you are willing to live with dementia through the end of the disease, this post will not be of use to you.