Assisted Suicide and Elders: How Far Would a Loving Caregiver Go?
Laws have been changed in several states since this was written, but assisted suicide in still a highly controversial topic.
Assisted suicide – illegal in all states except Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont and New Mexico – was once in the news because of the court case against Barbara Mancini.
Mancini was a Pennsylvania nurse who was accused of helping her father, 93-year-old Joe Yourshaw, commit suicide by handing him his partially full prescription bottle of morphine when he asked her to do so. Her father, who was under hospice care, then deliberately took an overdose of the medication because he wanted to die.
Mancini has since been acquitted, due to lack of proof that she gave her father his prescription bottle with the intention of helping him commit suicide.
What if?
My mother, during her last two years of agony, would often a look at me as say, “Can’t you just give me a little black pill?” It was obvious to me what she meant and, of course, all I could say was that I couldn’t do that, but I would do everything possible to aid her comfort.
Yet, her pleading nearly broke my heart…
Minding Our Elders: Caregivers Share Their Personal Stories. “I hold onto your book as a life preserver and am reading it slowly on purpose…I don’t want it to end.” …Craig William Dayton, Film Composer
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