News Page - Not Going Quietly

Here's an email message I've just sent in to the most popular radio talk show in Ireland:

Hi Gerry,

What a society we live in ! A society with mixed up beliefs and misplaced values, that debatedly treats animals with more respect, dignity and compassion than any of us mere humans whose bodies are going to pot, and looking on the bright side can only get worse.

I spent today in a meeting with the local doctor, various nurses, occupational therapist and reps from the irish wheelchair association and health board. Myself and my youngest brother have the great fortune of having the progressively debilitating disease Friedreich's ataxia, which slowly robs you of all independence and dignity, so today at 31yo I was asked if I have objections to going into a nursing home ( for a period of time while my mother is alive, to give her a break, and longterm if she kicks the bucket in the morning).

This question didn't faze me in the slightest. It's a nightmare reality which I have been anticipating since I was 15. I am at the stage now where I view death as the inevitable companion of life, but it annoys me so much that the country is full to overflowing with nursing homes full of the "living" dead, whose only intention is to protract life at any (and usually a debt inducing) cost. If a dog or other pet was seriously sick, the owner would be almost obliged to bring him/her to a vet, and have their suffering ended, and therein lies the crux of my problem.

Now I have a lot of fight left in me, and know that life asks of you, only that which it thinks you can handle, but its outrageous to me that someone can be stripped of their personal power, and control over their own body and destiny, in order to forcibly acquiesce with a legal system which was shaped by an ideology which says suffer suffer suffer and get your reward in your eternal life. Well nuts to that, jesus himself only suffered for a few hours!

Thankfully we are begining to wake up, and realise the importance of not expecting all of us to follow the same old tired formula. I believe very much in the good in people and life, just not life at all costs! What do your listeners think gerry of euthanasia and living too long?