If you take pain medication, you can kill yourself, many times over. I certainly could. Not to mention ropes, guns, razor blades, and a simple plastic bag over the head. I've had friends go all these ways, none of them who tried suicide failed to accomplish their goal.
It is my understanding that for people who are terminally ill with a painful disease that requires heavy opiate use, the line between pain relief and suppression of respiration and pulse is tenuous, and that health care workers who work with terminally ill people will push the line at the patient's request when death is imminent, but that seems unfair to me. If you want to do it, ask for the bottle and a glass of water.
With respect to "pulling the plug," every state in the union allows you to draft a written directive stating the circumstances under which you don't wish further medical treatment.
It is an unfortunate fact that impatient relatives may decide to bump off their family members, despite the absence of clear directives, see, e.g., Terry Shiavo, who left no written directive. Her husband says she told him that she wanted to die rather than exist in a persistent vegetative state, and this was sufficient to allow pulling the plug. |
