> No No - I was spouting Hindu philosophy there. Death is not the end of > life. > Death is an essential and unavoidable component of life. >
I learnt a little more about this disease when I went for this walk: http://walkcsoh.alsa.org/site/TR?sid=4340&type=fr_informational&pg=informational&fr_id=5837 http://deponti.livejournal.com/552771.html What I did not mention was that I spoke to someone with ALS for a long time. In direct contrast to Hal's choice, this lady spoke of choosing death. And she did give the same reason that Shiv has given above. Death, she said, is not ultimately avoidable, so she would rather die with dignity. As Shiv said, "The thing that died was not really my father, who had gone some months earlier." She might retain her cognitive powers, she said, but in case she didn't, and was not able to take the decision, she would like herself to be "released from the bondage of my body". Each person with this kind of illness has to make hes own choice, because there are so many factors and imperatives. When my mother was terminally ill, she too requested that aggressive life-prolonging procedures should not be taken up. Next to her lay someone who was brain-dead, but whose children were keeping him alive on the machines. The children (grown adults) were not well off, and the hospital bills were pulling them deeper into debt by the day. But they could not bear to take the decision to "pull the plug". I wanted to keep in touch with the lady who had ALS...but she did not wish it. "I like these chance encounters, and let them remain so," she said. I wanted also to speak to her caregiver, to get HER point of view...but she wouldn't talk. There is a prayer in Sanskrit that asks for: "anAyAsEna maraNam, vinA dhainyEna jeevanam" (an easy death, and a life without dependence). To my mind, a far more valid prayer than describing the doe-eyes of a goddess.... Deepa.
