A good death

            “Health panel tackles notion that a good life includes a good death”.
 
          That's a recent headline from my local newspaper here in the boonies. You know, so long as that panel is happening, it’s a good thing. And yet, have we learned nothing from the past few years that necessitates this conversation even keeps going?
Being a guy who enjoys a spirited discussion, I’ve ranted about this often. But it’s worth thinking about again as we settle in on the impact of Covid and the affect this pandemic is having with us, with our senior citizen parents, with our siblings, etc.
     EVERY life lived ought to be ended with a good death. Period. End of conversation. As far as I’m concerned.
        Now of course, where this discussion gets interesting is when the notion of suicide enters. Whoops: now, them’s fightin’ words.
            I’ve said it before so I’ll cut to the chase: with me, it’s black and white. Should anyone decide to end their own life, we need to acknowledge the pain they are experiencing that has led them to this decision. It has to be awful. Let’s face it: I doubt anyone really wants to commit suicide as their final act. But when it does come to that, we need to agree they should be able to end their lives peacefully and with dignity. With respect. With decorum.
           But that’s not that way it is, is it? We send these people off to meet their maker with pain over-arching their last moments of life. And that is just so wrong.
            Kurt Cobain left his remains dripping from the walls for his wife and daughter to clean up after he put a rifle in his mouth. Robin Williams saw to it his wife would return home only to walk down the stairs and find his body hanging from a rafter. Singer Susannah McCorkle leapt off the balcony of her Manhattan apartment to end up splattered on the street below. Hoe nice for her. How nice for the passersby.
            Are you OK with this? I’m sure as hell not.
            Why do we insist these people end life in such a terrible, violent way?
             It’s madness.

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