'I'm going to die on Monday at 6.15pm' (Euthanasia Diary)

UK Guardian ^ | 8/23/08 | Marc Weide

[wagglebee]

When Marc Weide's mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she chose euthanasia. Here, we publish his shockingly frank diary of her final days

Marc Weide's mother, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer and chose euthanasia

Monday February 11 2008

5.30pm: Dad is bent over the toilet bowl with a brush in his hand and a scowl on his face. I walk up to him. "Shall I give you a hand?" Dad begins to snigger, abandoning any attempt to make sense of the situation. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our backs to Mum, who paces around the landing with a newly fitted catheter in her hand.

The catheter has been put in by nurse Marianne to enable our GP, who will be with us in half an hour, to give Mum a lethal injection. But instead of having a moment of peace with us, as Marianne suggested, Mum demands that we clean the toilets. Both upstairs and downstairs.

My brother, Maarten, is sitting on the edge of the bath, staring out of the bathroom window.

"Imagine," he mutters. "Her last hour, spent like this."

This is the Netherlands, where voluntary euthanasia is permitted, as well as physician-assisted suicide. This is the day my mother has chosen to die, and the toilets need to be spotless.

[wagglebee]

My main regret is that there were such clashes between us in the run-up to her death. Perhaps if we had challenged Mum more over the years, keeping her ever-increasing demands in check, we could have been at peace as a family, instead of at war over shoes and toilets, right to the bitter end.

He encouraged his mother to die and his only regrets are arguments about shoes and toilets?!

[wagglebee]

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[Repeal The 17th]

I am going to hang around until at least December 21, 2012
just to see what happens next.

[Salvation]

Pray for an end to euthanasia and the conversion of America to a mindset of life!

[Salvation]

Our Lady's Warriors.Dissent>Speakers and Authors

Abortion and Euthanasia
Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE)	Catholic politician who votes for abortion in contradiction to Church teachings. One of American Life League's "Deadly Dozen."

[fightinJAG]

This woman appeared to be set on dying. Most of the people around her seemed to have doubts about what she was doing, but she did not allow anyone “in” to her decision.

It sounds as though she died as she lived. In the delusion that she somehow was in supreme control of everything.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

One of the least conservative sorts of behavior, it seems to me, is to assign to yourself the right to made this decision for someone else, irrespective of their wishes.

[Tennessee Nana]

Clean toilets ????

Dont understand that one...

I’ll go down fighting...

Mucky toilets or clean...

[wolfcreek]

Me too! I made it past the year 2000 so, I’ve accomplished one of my goals.

[itsthejourney]

Didn’t want chemo because of her beautiful hair and demanded to have clean toilets, no shoe scratches on her floor and griped about fruit juice in her fridge. What memories she’s left behind.

[Repeal The 17th]

“I see miles and miles of Texas...let’s keep it that way.”
- - -
Chuckle; that reminds me of the old joke.
Out in west texas it is so flat...
that if you look out in front of you...
just as far as you can see...
all you can see...
is the back of your own head.
Man, that’s flat!

[nothingnew]

It sounds as though she died as she lived. In the delusion that she somehow was in supreme control of everything.

Everybody sure this isn't about Hyacinth Bucket...("That's Bouquet!")?

FMCDH(BITS)

[Gondring]

Not in the Nanny-Staters’ world.

[Paleo Conservative]

2008:

'I'm going to die on Monday at 6.15pm'

2038:

'You're going to die on Monday at 6.15pm'

[DieHard the Hunter]

How depressing!