MAID Concerns - How Will Our Politicians Respond?

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My late ex-husband had esophogeal cancer, so no oral feeding was possible. He would cry with pain trying to absorb a dribble of water anywhere near his throat. He would have died months before he did if he'd said no to the feeding tube. This was the ultimate anti-MAID guy; he was making plans for more chemo, when he weighed 90 lbs on a 6' frame and his doctors were talking palliative sedation.
 
Not eating at the end of life is a normal part of the dying process

Ritafee, that was what happened to my Mom. She was in some level of kidney failure, and Christmas Day she just became a lot less responsive; she talked very little, was very tired, would not eat anything. She was still a bit thirsty, and liked an ice chip, or a moist sponge; she just faded away over the course of a week. Her nursing home had a special hospice room where families could come and go at all hours as we wished, so there was pretty well always one or more of us there most of the day, and sometimes into the night.
 
Similar to my Mom ... but prior to her stopping eating ... she was 'fed' 3 meals a day orally ... it was her way of socializing ... but still she was starving ... she was totally wasted ... and still trying to sing along for as long as she was conscious... during her last 3 days ... there was hardly a moment that one or another was not holding her hand and singing to her. She drew her last breath to 'Blessed Assurance' being hummed to her by one of her granddaughters holding her hand at that time. My mother was absolutely against 'being put down' before it was her time to die. Whenever someone would say before lowering her bed 'I'm going to put you down now' ... she would say 'You better Not!
 
My late ex-husband had esophogeal cancer, so no oral feeding was possible. He would cry with pain trying to absorb a dribble of water anywhere near his throat. He would have died months before he did if he'd said no to the feeding tube. This was the ultimate anti-MAID guy; he was making plans for more chemo, when he weighed 90 lbs on a 6' frame and his doctors were talking palliative sedation.
I'm not liking the pain. I'm liking his character and resolve to see his life all the way through and fight until the end, even with the pain. When the end came, his pain ended.
 
What if his fighting appeared to be mainly about being afraid of death?

It was super-hard for his kids to watch.

I think this is a totally personal individual decision in many ways, and I just can't deny either position, because ultimately, we, as persons, are responsible for how we face death. And I don't think "Godde" judges us for this decision.
 
@BetteTheRed ... how many times did you plot a way to 'end his suffering' for him? I know I thought of it a few times with my mother when they were not able to manage her pain properly.
 
He had another 'wife' by then. She supported him, and I was glad to be at arms' length from the process. I drove kids up and down to his place (a 3 hr drive), I talked regularly with his siblings and step-Mom. We had a strange conversation, while he could still talk, but really knew that this was not going to end well, in which I always felt we mutually forgave each other. At that point, it would have felt controlling to have imposed my will (a gentler death) on his need to fight to the end.
 
Yes, but what of things that are not pain.

What of suffocation?

What of the auditory effects of a brain tumour? (Dr. Don Lowy described one effect as having a freight train repeatedly and extremely noisily travel through your head.)
 
So without MAID
Yes, but what of things that are not pain.

What of suffocation?

What of the auditory effects of a brain tumour? (Dr. Don Lowy described one effect as having a freight train repeatedly and extremely noisily travel through your head.)
Both sound painful to me ...
 
Both sound painful to me ...

The first is very frightening. One's body really struggles against a lack of air; long term it causes extreme exhaustion.

The second is "maddening". I am quite sensitive to noise, especially discordant noise, and correspondingly soothed by music, especially certain types; I suspect tinnitus might drive me insane.
 
I suspect tinnitus might drive me insane.

I had mild tinnitus for a while this spring. It was more irritating than maddening but I suppose if it was worse and lasted longer it could get there. But your point is important. Pain isn't the only symptom that causes suffering and some of those others are much harder to relieve. With pain, if you're dying, no one is going to worry about addiction so opiates are a viable option. Not sure how you relieve a "freight train in your head". Maybe some kind of meditation could at least control your response to it??
 
Tinnitus doesn't bother me too much, although annoying and it's not too loud. I get it often, but it only lasts an hour or 2. 24/7 would be more difficult to deal with. Some other non-pain symptoms are more difficult to cope with.
 
I'm not sure what you meant to post there, but it's got nothing to do with MAID?
Yes, it does, indirectly. I posted above about an article I read in a disability studies journal about Hitler's ideas about disabilities, and his subsequent political propaganda campaigns that pushed his ideas. Vets good people, congenital disabilities and chronic conditions bad (not even) people.

The propaganda of pitting one group of people against another (cops and vets and politicians who have come through violent trauma), and regular people with disabilities - but in this case someone with a disability calling for healthcare and better social programs - literally had his voice taken over. They put words in his mouth because they could - using the same kind of technology he uses to speak. Whatever it was he said or not, they took his voice from him by using him that way. It was foul ableist propaganda - and, like Sam pointed out - not unlike how the far right mischaracterizes Jews in propaganda. That is historically relevant as well as currently.

What it has to do with MAID is the political dividing of people with disabilities to get people disgusted with or fearful of one type (the 'needy' misfit ones that side with blm and "socialists" - even if they don't they're lumped in - which apparently now includes Biden in their delusions) and proud of another (the well-off courageous or patriotic ones who gave to their country). That kind of dynamic happened before MAID was passed.

*And the fact that this particular politician - who overdubbed a recording of this single payer healthcare advocate who has a disability - made a David Duke, the Klan leader, reference about himself should not get overlooked.
 
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