Did any one else read about the couple (a very intelligent pair if I remember, academics I think) who always said that when they felt deterioration coming on or major illnesses, they would end it all, at a time of their choosing rather than cling to a life of illness, immobility, disease? There as an article about their planned suicides in one of the papers a few years ago.
They'd talked with their children about their plans, in positive ways. Their family respected their wishes to check out on their own terms. They had no wish to live as frail, dependent people who could no longer participate in all the things which made life worth living. They both wrote notes to say they were taking their own lives.
They called their children together when the time was nigh to say their goodbyes. They were under strict instructions then to be as far away from the family home as possible, so they weren't implicated in their deaths/suicides.
Both felt they didn't want to go on, so she went to the shed, and took whatever it was she'd planned to take. He held her hand until he was sure she'd gone, and then he went elsewhere to take his own life. Both left letters to the effect that no on else had helped them die and they'd had a pact to end life when they felt the quality of it had deteriorated to a stage they didn't enjoy.
Their grown children didn't want to deny them their way out.
I'd like to go when I choose, I dread the thought of ending my days sitting in a nappy, dribbling, being spoon fed and unable to do anything for myself. I have watched relatives deteriorate in homes and they've been immobile, confused, unhappy and fully dependent on others to keep them clean and fed. Not only that, their existence cost a fortune!
I believe all life is precious, but I'd like to spare my family those end stages and plan my demise. Watching my parents grow frail and then very ill was so very painful. There was no joy, for any of us. After years of suffering, the drugs administered to them at the end brought them relief and release.