Euthanasia

[hfojvt]

18. I don't think it is new

I visited my dad's aunt in 1984 when she was 87 and in a nursing home. She spent the whole visit pretty much crying about being there. She couldn't control her saliva either and was slobbering all over herself. She didn't want to be there and didn't want to eat either, and they were making her eat, as I understand it. As a 51 year old, I would not stand for anyone telling me that I have to eat if I don't want to eat. But I realize that even now I could be forced to do so, and not have the power to prevent it if people chose to have no respect for my right to make my own decisions. She did not die until 3 Feb. 1991, almost seven years later. I never saw her again, because of transportation issues that I had. I started to go there in the summer of 1987 as a three day bicycle trip, but sorta wimped out on it for lack of places to stay.

I am thinking that she basically suffered for seven miserable years, and looking back I regret not thinking about her when I had my own place in May of 1986. I should have taken a week off and driven the 2,000 miles to bust her out. I might have been able to say "she is family, she's coming with me" and if it was like 1984 she would have been happy to go. I do not even know though if by then she might have been considered non compos mentis.