Yes

by M. L. Kiser

Created on: July 26, 2007

I used to be one of those people who believed that life and death were strictly in Gods hands. That whatever happened in-between we just had to endure. Then, I became a caregiver for a father with Alzheimer's disease. If there is anything that will change a person's views of life.vs.death, I have found that it is Alzheimer's.

For anyone who doesn't know, Alzheimer's disease is not just a disease effecting memory, but a instead a disease that destroys the entire mind and body, slowly. You may begin by losing your memory or sense of smell. Eventually you lose your sense of feeling; you can't even tell that you are wet. You lose your sight, hearing, all motor skills including your ability to chew and swallow, but, you'll probably forget those skills long before you lose them and have to be re-trained a number of times by therapists. Alzheimer's is degrading, demeaning; it strips a person of their very individuality and the joy of life.

Near the end, you'll end up, in bed, on tubes and that will be your life until you die. It's most unfortunate that many with Alzheimer's outlive their caregivers because they require so much round-the-clock care.

After watching my sister suffer with Cancer for nearly seven long years and lose her battle, I reached the conclusion that she had it easier than my father. At least she had her cognitive and motor skills up until the last few months of her life. Dad couldn't even enjoy the last few Christmases with his great-grandchildren; he couldn't recall who they were or where he was. He didn't even realize that it was Christmas.

One of my last memories of Dad was walking down the hallway of the nursing home that we were finally forced to put him into and hearing his screams of agonizing pain. He had wandered into another patients room and ended up with a broken hip. He didn't even have the cognitivity to work with a therapist at that point. I remember begging the night nurse to give him something for the pain, but she insisted that with the Alzheimer and pain medications that he was already taking, he could not take anything else. For a man who had been active and outdoors most of his life, Dad was suffering through a real Hell. A Hell that would never let him escape. He was trapped in a living nightmare and would never get out, as long as he was alive.

For many people with fatal diseases like Alzheimer's, this Hell is a seemingly unending reality. It only ends with death. Knowing my Father, I believe he would have preferred to have gone on and met death rather than to have suffered.

I personally, prefer such a choice. No human being should ever have to endure what my Father had to endure, constant pain, unable to think, speak, drink or eat. Alzheimer's is degrading, demeaning, inhumane, it strips a person of everything God gave them. Death is a sweet release compared to the torture that we put each other through by forcing people to stay alive on tubes and machines.

Matters of an individuals right to choose life or death should remain an individuals right. No group, organization, government, etc., should ever interfere with that right. It is a choice God gave us when we were born. An who among us has the right to overrule God?

And if you don't believe in God, consider that your life is yours; do you want someone else to tell you that you will have to live on tubes in agonizing pain; not knowing who you are or whom anyone else is? Do you want someone to tell you that you have to be that way for years maybe decades? I don't1 I want my freedom to choose death over life when it comes down to that choice.

It's not just a medical issue; it's also a moral, ethical and spiritual issue for many of us. My beliefs allow for my choice, so do those of many other people.

Patients are tortured in hospitals every day and without a second thought about how much they are suffering or perhaps medical personnel think that the patient's suffering is the less horrific of the two ends. To them I ask, "was tying my father down in the bed, the cuffs bruising his arms and wrist until they were black, letting him scream in agony for hours on end while he tried to pull his stomach tube out of his stomach, less horrific than death would have been?" My God, no, death would have been a sweet gift to him.

Had Dad known what he was in for, he might have chosen death over the disease. Alzheimer's is one disease where I would. No sentient being should ever have to be belittled and defamed by a disease as dark and evil as Alzheimer's. yet so many are.
It's sad that in America, we punish the only doctors who have the conscience to really care. And the families who only abide by the patient's wishes.

Don't get me wrong; I don't advocate murder. But Physician-assisted suicide is not murder and I can't personally call it suicide. The choice should remain an individual's choice and the doctor or individual who assists in the patients wishes should never be treated as a criminal. If anything, living wills and DNR's should be iron-clad so that no one should ever have to pay a price for aiding someone who is in such agony. Especially when the patient requests assistance.

One might ask: "Where do we draw the line between assist and murder?" It's truly a Grey area. But speaking personally; I would rather not suffer. I would rather not have my agony prolonged if I am fated to die. That is cruelty and abuse to prolong someone's agony. I have seen the agony of others and I know that they would have suffered severely if death had not taken them.

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