Thank you for the post brother. I worked as a sitter for five years 7500 hours not to brag for minimum wage. It was a humbling and sacred time and I worked with many palliative care patients. I sat with the dying while family members were sitting in the lounge. I’m not saying this to judge people, but suffering is real and I witnessed people waiting for months to pass while the spouse made the journey up to the hospital almost daily. So my point of this is until you sat 100 hours with the suffering and the dying my recommendations is you have if you have nothing nice to say don’t say anything amen Namaste
Another real problem is the pain caused by a loved one citing these distorted arguments while other loved ones are trying to have the difficult conversation about someone’s choice in the face of suffering. This reminds me of the reaction to the pandemic - people who don’t understand base rates, risk, and hard choices trying to tell others how to read the data. It harms personal relationships and the hurt lingers for years.
My dad used MAID to escape the living torture that is ALS. I will support MAID until the day I die, and I can only hope mine is as supported and kept sacred the way his was.
There’s a billboard near me from a pearl-clutching collective that talks about the number of MAID deaths. I emailed the group a thank you for keeping us all updated on how many people have been spared a drawn-out, painful and terrifying death.
Thank you ever so much for this. I lost 3 family members one after another from Cancer before MAID existed and every one of them pleaded with everyone to help them die because eventually the pain meds cease to work. All of them dies agonizing and long drawn out deaths. 2 years ago my husbands Father also suffering from cancer was allowed MAID, and the difference between his quite, surrounded by family and loving death was so very different. I would have given anything to have helped my family members to die the same deaths with their dignity intact but MAID did not exist at the time! I am SO VERY GLAD it exists today so NO ONE who is suffering need to continue to.
Thank you for the post brother. I worked as a sitter for five years 7500 hours not to brag for minimum wage. It was a humbling and sacred time and I worked with many palliative care patients. I sat with the dying while family members were sitting in the lounge. I’m not saying this to judge people, but suffering is real and I witnessed people waiting for months to pass while the spouse made the journey up to the hospital almost daily. So my point of this is until you sat 100 hours with the suffering and the dying my recommendations is you have if you have nothing nice to say don’t say anything amen Namaste
Great essay.
It is a trenchant rebuttal to Urback's horrible anti-MAiD opinion piece in the Globe and Mail this weekend.
Thank you.
Another real problem is the pain caused by a loved one citing these distorted arguments while other loved ones are trying to have the difficult conversation about someone’s choice in the face of suffering. This reminds me of the reaction to the pandemic - people who don’t understand base rates, risk, and hard choices trying to tell others how to read the data. It harms personal relationships and the hurt lingers for years.
Thank you.
Thx for info, actually facts that extremists seem to omit
My dad used MAID to escape the living torture that is ALS. I will support MAID until the day I die, and I can only hope mine is as supported and kept sacred the way his was.
There’s a billboard near me from a pearl-clutching collective that talks about the number of MAID deaths. I emailed the group a thank you for keeping us all updated on how many people have been spared a drawn-out, painful and terrifying death.
Thank you ever so much for this. I lost 3 family members one after another from Cancer before MAID existed and every one of them pleaded with everyone to help them die because eventually the pain meds cease to work. All of them dies agonizing and long drawn out deaths. 2 years ago my husbands Father also suffering from cancer was allowed MAID, and the difference between his quite, surrounded by family and loving death was so very different. I would have given anything to have helped my family members to die the same deaths with their dignity intact but MAID did not exist at the time! I am SO VERY GLAD it exists today so NO ONE who is suffering need to continue to.