A geriatric couple in their 90's have decided to die together and thus refused food and liquid or other substances. Their son has intervened and failed.
Sad story indeed. Do the elderly have the right to determine the end of their life's journey? With this particular couple the quality of their lives were fairly rock bottom. Severe pain, immobility and suffering from dementia. Both of them knew the quality of their lives was not worth the pain. I think that the assisted living home that evicted them was not being sympathetic... probably more worried about being sued by survivors if they couldn't prevent their deaths. Yet they found a way and hopefully they were at peace with themselves doing so.
I guess the question is do they have the right? Suicide is illegal of course but when quality of life becomes intolerable, unbearable, cannot be improved (via drugs, living conditions, et al) then what choice would they have other than to live the rest of their days in pain, misery and loss of dignity?
In ancient times the elderly tended to wander off into the wilderness to die because they can no longer contribute to the welfare of their tribes/communities, or that their pain cannot be resolved. Now we have hospices and retirement homes and so forth.
It's a Kevorkian dilemma to be sure.
By MIKAELA CONLEY
Aug. 18, 2011
At 92 and 90, Armond and Dorothy Rudolph's bodies were failing them. He suffered severe pain from spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal column. She was almost entirely immobile. Both suffered from early dementia, according to their son Neil Rudolph. They wanted to die.
The Rudolphs, married for 69 years, decided to refuse food and water to end their lives. Although they lived in the Village at Alameda, an assisted living facility in Albuquerque, N.M., they maintained they had a right to die on their own accord.
Three days into their fast, the couple told their plan to staff at the facility. Administrators immediately called 911, citing an attempted suicide.
The Village evicted the couple, and the next day, the Rudolphs moved into a private home, where they again stopped eating and drinking. Ten days after he began the fast, Armond Rudolph died. Dorothy Rudolph died the following day.
Full story here http://abcnews.go.com/Health/couple-stops-eating-drinking-end-life-son-launches/story?id=14327416
Sad story indeed. Do the elderly have the right to determine the end of their life's journey? With this particular couple the quality of their lives were fairly rock bottom. Severe pain, immobility and suffering from dementia. Both of them knew the quality of their lives was not worth the pain. I think that the assisted living home that evicted them was not being sympathetic... probably more worried about being sued by survivors if they couldn't prevent their deaths. Yet they found a way and hopefully they were at peace with themselves doing so.
I guess the question is do they have the right? Suicide is illegal of course but when quality of life becomes intolerable, unbearable, cannot be improved (via drugs, living conditions, et al) then what choice would they have other than to live the rest of their days in pain, misery and loss of dignity?
In ancient times the elderly tended to wander off into the wilderness to die because they can no longer contribute to the welfare of their tribes/communities, or that their pain cannot be resolved. Now we have hospices and retirement homes and so forth.
It's a Kevorkian dilemma to be sure.