What We Are Becoming: Husband Wished to Help Wife Kill Herself
This is what we are becoming. Valerie Myer was disabled by Parkinson's disease and wanted to commit suicide. That was apparently okay with her husband, who is furious he couldn't assist her. I will let the story speak for itself: Mr [Michael] Grosvenor Myer described his wife's decision as "rational and courageous" and said that she had wanted him to be with her at the end. Valerie Grosvenor Myer was a novelist, literary critic, biographer, poet, playwright and teacher. She died at the age of 75 at the couple's home in Haddenham, Cambridgeshire, on Aug 9 last year.
I shudder for our civilization.
She took an overdose of paracetamol after three previous attempts to take her own life. "She was a distinguished woman but Parkinson's disease had robbed her of the power of speaking articulately.
"Her beautiful italic handwriting was nothing but a bitter memory. She kept falling over and injuring herself. She knew when she had degenerated as much as she was prepared to put up with. When the day came I agreed to invent an unnecessary day's work at the university library so that she could get on with it. I don't regret it: it was what she wanted.
"My regret is only that because of the idiocy of the present law, my precious only heart's darling had to die a horrible, lonely death all alone here in the house instead of having me here to help and comfort her, which was what she wanted," said Mr Grosvenor Myer in a letter to a newspaper.
Mr Grosvenor Myer said that after a previous, unsuccessful suicide attempt his wife had gone into a coma and he had to call doctors. A consultant then threatened to section her to stop her committing suicide. Mr Grosvenor Myer said: "I told him outright that was the remark of a fool and a bully."
Labels: Assisted Suicide. Disabilities. Culture of Death. Terminal Nonjudgmentalism.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 6:23 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
Why shudder, when all you have to do is mind your own business? Not that difficult, is it?
This issue is everyone's business. Although she made a personal decision, this serves as an "case scenario" for the next. Sure, the grief and grappling [with disease] took an emotional toll on the couple but the story outlines the final act as "compassionate" rather than exposing it for what it is - suicide. Society's role is not to promote suicide. Rather it is to prevent it and ensure the proper worth of all life (including those near/at the end).
Plenty of people in Europe in the 1930's found it not that difficult to mind their own business. Historywriter, do I need to tell you what happened next?
The thing that bothers me the most is that there are SO MANY OPTIONS for this woman! I mean, look, you've got Canine Companions for Independence that offer dogs to help with physical issues. You have computer programs that allow your computer to write for you by using eyeblink technology and voice command that will understand any voice (even a fading one) that it's programmed to. You've got group therapy counseling sessions to help people cope with problems and strengthen their resolve. You've got all kinds of new therapies available to help re-wire the brain and make moving easier. You've got people willing to take dictation, you've got nursing groups (some of them Christian groups) who work in the home of an individual who needs help to do tasks, to keep people company, and to help people learn new ways to do things they can't do the old way anymore. There are pain medications, music therapy, massage therapy, I mean jeez! They gave up on her life, which is a shame because I'm betting she had a lot left to offer. So what if her handwriting isn't good anymore? She was still the same woman, still plenty brilliant, and could have written a novel or seven just as easily as she had when she hand wrote, just done in a different way! Grr... what a waste. The world is a darker place without her in it, and it's made darker still by the method in which she left us.
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