Assisted suicide or murder? A cry for universal health care?

Thanks Amanda. I appreciate your honesty and empathize with your feelings.

:-(

~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High ( http://fasttimes.clubmom.com ) & Flamingo House Happenings ( http://www.flamingohouse.net )

Killing someone by tossing them over a balcony is a terrible, terrible thing to do.

But as someone who was sort of in the same situation when I served as caregiver for my husband through his last, year-long leukemia relapse, I'd be lying to say that there weren't times that I thought that either or both of us would be better off dead than going through everything that we did.

Absolutely this is symptomatic of the way that our healthcare system is failing. Long-term illness shouldn't drive people to the poorhouse; caregivers shouldn't be made responsible for maintenance tasks that should be handled by trained medical professionals; and SICK PEOPLE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO STAY IN-PATIENT IN A HOSPITAL WHERE THEY CAN RECEIVE PROPER MEDICAL ATTENTION.

How many people are going to have to snap before things change?

Amanda Shaffer, Blogher Health and Wellness Contributing Editor ( http://www.blogher.com )

The Cat Lady. ( http://the-cat-lady.com )

as a fall from the balcony sounds....I have to wonder if the pain she experienced in dying (which we don't know for certain) was less than the pain she was experiencing in living...and I must admit, I don't want to suffer a long, slow painful death that ruins my family's life, financially or otherwise.

And what is wrong with our country's health care system? How can a man caring for his wife be forced into bankruptcy while insurance policies are paying for one, two, three and four IVF treatments for women to give birth. It just doesn't make sense and seems as though the government and big business value new life over old life, which worries my as my parents hit their 70s.

What a way to start a Saturday!!!
Helene

I just blogged about this very subject earlier this week. It is my predication that the aging baby boomers will not only address but insist on end of life choices.

In the medical community, there bit of a debate over medically defining and categorizing the mental and physical stresses that often accompany caregiving as "caregiver syndrome".

Click on the link below to further review my concerns:

http://blogspot.expectingexecutive.com/2007/08/13/... ( http://blogspot.expectingexecutive.com/2007/08/13/... )

This is an important discussion and I agree with Denise that we should have these discussions with our family and loved ones well in advance of a health crisis or death.

Be well,

Erin
In order to change your life, you must first change your life.
ExpectingExecutive ( http://blogspot.expectingexecutive.com )

Better to plan it now then try when you're as sick as this woman was. Or leave it up to someone else to deal with during a really horrible time.

Caregiver support is critical and getting more critical with each passing day.

~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High ( http://fasttimes.clubmom.com ) & Flamingo House Happenings ( http://www.flamingohouse.net )

Who knows? People don't think things through when they're in pain, heck they often don't think things through when they are not in pain.

No, it probably won't. It was murder and that will over-ride all other discussion I think.

~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High ( http://fasttimes.clubmom.com ) & Flamingo House Happenings ( http://www.flamingohouse.net )

I thought I had spurled or delicioused that and then couldn't find it a couple of days ago. Michelle wanted it! ;-)

Interesting guy.

~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High ( http://fasttimes.clubmom.com ) & Flamingo House Happenings ( http://www.flamingohouse.net )

and I don't condone what he did but there is only so much pressure and "control" a person has in troubled times. Health care has to be expanded to include a caregiver support system.

Society expects wives and daughters to pick up the slack. No matter who is the caregiver it is too much to ask one person to handle the health care issues, the financial ones and the day to day responsibilities.

With the aging boomer population there is going to be more of this, sad to say.

I have been thinking about this, how will I plan my final exit? I'd rather make the choice than to have someone decide for me.

Gena - Out On The Stoop ( http://outonthestoop.blogspot.com )

Who knows where a mind can go when stressed? I've learned that one the hard way.

But he threw her to her death... not only did she have to deal with illness, but he chose a violent, not exactly instantaneous way to do this. And was it assisted suicide? Wouldn't she leave something absolving him?

I do agree it should call attention to health care reform, but will it?

nelle ( http://www.nelle2nelle.org/ )

At the Toronto Hot Docs festival this year one of the docs was a film called The Suicide Tourist by John Zaritsky. He's the same guy who did Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo. He basically spent several days with several people in Switzerland filming people who were going there for assisted-suicide.

You can watch an interview with him here ( http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php?id=1543 ). It's interesting. He wants people to debate the topic.

Sassymonkey ( http://sassymonkey.ca/ ) and Sassymonkey Reads ( http://sassymonkeyreads.wordpress.com/ ).

It's not my idea of assisted suicide either but then again there are people who find all forms of assisted suicide horrifying. But, I'm guessing he's going to claim that's what he was doing, don't you think? Or will he go for temporary insanity?

~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High ( http://fasttimes.clubmom.com ) & Flamingo House Happenings ( http://www.flamingohouse.net )

I can't say that I can justify what Mr. Reimer did, but I can't imagine what he must have been thinking or feeling.

I'd like to believe that my faith would guide me through a situation like this if I were in his shoes, but can I really be so sure?

It just devastates me.

And then I think about what his wife must have been thinking and whether or not she knew what was happening. It makes me want to throw up. It's awful and sad.

I still can't grasp this...

Dana from The Dana Files ( http://thedanafiles.com ).

I'm not actually opposed in principle to someone having the right to arrange for their own painless death in the face of terminal, painful illness.

But this doesn't even seem close to that...throwing her off a balcony??

Horrifying.

Elisa Camahort
BlogHer
elisa@blogher.org

It shouldn't have happened....and yet even with trying to understand the hopelessness
in this situation I can't help but wonder if he couldn't have found it within himself to
have found another, less violent end.

Marianne Richmond
resonancepartnership ( http://www.resonancepartnership.com )

OK...Explain to me how this is anyone's fault? I don't think "assisted suicide" should even be in the title. Nowhere in the article is there any indication that this woman wanted to take her own life.

I feel badly that this couple's life was in a very sad state of despair, but I don't think blaming our lack of universal health care is any grounds for tossing a human being over a balcony to plummet to their death.

Wheat Among Tares ( http://wheatamongtares.blogspot.com )