comment: >
  
  Dehydration takes 3 or 4 days. It's tough to get a miniscule amount to keep the tongue comfortable, but not enough to prolong it.
context: Damn, that does sound like it was a shit show. I feel worse now for the woman, she didn't want to do it, but they made a pact and he couldn't do his part. And then being in the same room with her dead husband for over 3 hours, trying to get the courage to shoot herself and then flashbanged. Damn she went through literal hell, I can't imagine her fear and emotions. Hospital staff went through hell, too. But that poor lady... >
  
  No winners here at all >
  
  The husband got his relief. >
  
  Unfortunately it seems like he passed the pain onto his wife >
  
  Nd that's why there should be a legal avenue to end things without a mess if health is deteriorating faster than we can control it >
  
  Jack Kevorkian had the right idea >
  
  My Grandpa recently passed using the MAiD program and honestly he would have done it the day it was offered if they would have let him. I can’t imagine him having to suffer the way he did near the end without that option as his quality of life was non-existent at that point. >
  
  Maid program is a new term to me >
  
  MAiD is the name of the program used in Canada.
  After seeing two Grandparents see their healthy slowly and painfully deteriorate - I'm glad MAiD is available in Canada.
  I still recall my Grandfather in his final weeks questioning why his body wouldn't just let go seeing how much he was suffering. >
  
  The international community is giving us a lot of grief over MAiD. But fuck it. We're trying to do the right thing with it. I'm proud of us for our progress on MAiD. >
  
  With the exception of those arguing in bad faith, the issue was with how it was being offered and handled, not that the program existed. I wish all the states in the US would offer it. >
  
  My understanding is that MAiD can't be offered, it can only be requested by the patient. Also the deadline for MAiD to be available to people who are only suffering mental illness did come up last month, but the government has pushed the deadline to at least March 2023. 
  In the news recently there have been some individuals working for government bodies that suggested MAiD to patients who were disabled, but those individuals were being negligent in their duties and were fired. >
  
  My father just passed away after a long battle with Parkinson’s and dementia.
  If the requirement would have been that the request came from him, he lost most of his real cognitive abilities back in 2021. How does the law account for someone in his situation? He was alive and in pain, but in the eyes of US law he was not fit to make legal decisions (obviously, we are talking about Canada here, so the laws will be different).
  Just thinking through how the process works. >
  
  I'm so sorry for your loss, my grandfather had Parkinson's disease and it was horrible to watch his suffering and deterioration - it is the reason I am so thankful we have MAiD here now. 
  I am not a professional who works in the medical field, but my understanding is in order to receive MAiD you have to be able to consent, and part of that would include being able to process and retain new information. So you would have to request it very early on after being diagnosed with dementia - you don't have to take it early on, just that you have to make your wishes known to your doctors, get their approval, and set a timeline for when you would want to die before you lose all of your cognitive abilities. >
  
  We have more humane methods of death for our pets then we do our family, friends, and ourselves. >
  
  We have more humane methods of death for our prisoners. >
  
  but we instead use the shitty evil one where it feels like acid in your veins >
  
  But do you know why?  
  It because no company wants their products  associated with intentionally causing death, so its incredibly difficult to source any approved components, especially anything more high-tech than pool cleaner >
  
  No drug company wants to be associated with executions and death. I guarantee Smith and Wesson would proudly supply ammunition to the state for executions. They’d probably even advertise it on boxes of hollow points: “proud supplier of execution supplies to the state of Texas.” >
  
  That's actually an interesting thought experiment. Do you really think anti-establishment libertarians are going to buy the ammo of state execution? >
  
  True libertarians, probably not. The MAGA crowd would probably be down with it though. >
  
  People have the right to die with dignity and go quickly without pain when the only alternative is prolonged suffering... This probably isn't the way to do it, but if her version of events is accurate then she was a good partner >
  
  
  People have the right to die with dignity and go quickly without pain when the only alternative is prolonged suffering...
  
  Scenarios like this make me think of Robin Williams. He knew his illness would be a long, painful, drawn-out process that would put him and his family through hell. People in those circumstances should have a choice to die with dignity. >
  
  My grandpa stole liquid morphine from the hospice nurse’s cart and killed himself. He’d been suffering endless vertigo for two years and wanted it to end.
  My family was really messed up about it, and now they just say he “passed away from old age” and get angry if you bring it up and they deny that he killed himself (like they’re editing the past or something, it’s weird).
  But my little sister and I were just relieved and kind of peaceful about it. If he wanted to go, then he should have been allowed to. Why would I be sad about him getting what he wanted? Morphine doesn’t seem like a terrible way to go.
  Edit: I was flippant about my family above, but I’ll just point out that their behavior is in many ways a trauma response. 
  I’ve seen similar in people with untreated ptsd, etc, they can’t handle or process future stressful or traumatic events and the brain can do weird things to protect itself. 
  My grandpa I grew up with wasn’t my bio-grandpa, he was my step-grandpa. My grandma’s previous husband beat her and her kids daily, hence the untreated ptsd. And that was often considered normal or ignored at the time, and the family never went to therapy. He died in a car accident and that was that. >
  
  From what I've read, a morphine death is falling asleep and never waking up again. We should all be so lucky.
  Nitrogen asphyxiation is apparently similar. You suffocate but peacefully as there's no buildup of CO2 since you're not holding your breath. You pass out and your brain dies with you unawares due to lack of oxygen -- or something to that effect. >
  
  Yeah this reminds me of the how some animal centres will use N2O to "humanely" kill a bunch of unneeded baby chicks for example. Put them in a room, gas them and they pass out and die without realising.
  Whereas others will use CO2 which is much worse because they suffer before they die, like choking to death >
  
  CO2 is terrifying - if anyone is curious about the mental effect this has, read about Carbogen. meanwhile N2O is intensely euphoric and psychedelic. 
  I know which I'd prefer. >
  
  Somehow this reminds me of the book Brave New World. >
  
  I always thought that Brave New World was closer to the dystopia we’re left with. So focused on pleasure, or at least attaining a moment of respite from the existential horror, how can we deny that 2+2=5? (Ik thats the 1984 reference, but any discussion with one of the books often necessitates the comparison of the other). 
  But yes, comparing forms of assisted suicide is in form with Brave New World, and honestly probably the least problematic with modern audiences as compared to all the eugenics. >
  
  These are both based of the russian novel We. If you like both of those you ought to give it a shot. >
  
  
  After shooting her husband at about 11:30 a.m., she refused to come out until about 3:30 p.m. after negotiating with police, McCallister said. Ellen Gilland did not harm herself and no one else was wounded. Part of the hospital was evacuated and some doctors, nurses and others took cover in locked closets and rooms.
  McCallister said no charges were immediately announced.
  
  Assuming this was a mutually agreed upon assisted suicide…heart-wrenching to imagine pulling the trigger to put the love of your life out of his misery. I feel awful for both of them. I hope she can find peace. 
  End of life decisions are so hard. We should all have the right to end our lives as we see fit, with medical assistance, in a humane way. >
  
  100%, we had my FIL in hospice care with us at home, the last couple days were horrible.(this was years ago, sorry for my poor phrasing) They allow him enough medicine to not be lucid, but not enough to actually put him out of his misery. I learned a new term from that experience, active dying. It’s painful and depressing to see a loved one go through that. >
  
  Same for my grandfather, he was dying but completely lucid, kept asking why nobody could give him something to end it. It wasn’t a long terminal Illness, he was just old and active - fell once and never recovered. 
  For info this was the U.K. so thankfully cost us nothing, but that shouldn’t be a consideration yet unfortunately is for so many. 
  A nurse came once a day but he couldn’t be admitted to hospice as they need a sort of ‘death date’ which nobody could really tell. To see an old but proud man with all of his mental capacity be reliant on us for changing himself when he shat himself, to watch him cry in embarrassment as he needed his family for all basic functions - asking why it’s taking so long to die…. 
  Personally and fortunately we had access to psychedelics and other non prescription things to ease the passing, but watching someone ask to die as they’re literally done, was quite difficult. 
  The thing that bugged me with him was that it wasn’t dementia or cancer, it was just a normal death. Took two weeks. Scares me if that could be the ‘best’ option for myself. 
  The best part was the funeral. Happiest one I’ve been to. We all got to say our proper goodbyes and were pleased it was finally over. We celebrated his life at the wake remembering who he was. 
  I totally feel for the woman in this article and in her position, I’d like to think I’d have the courage to do the same for my partner.