Personally I think it could be OK but IME COTH does not consider it a suitable subject for discussion.
Just sayin.
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Why would you think that COTH doesnât consider it a suitable subject for discussion? When I posted about my ex FIL who decided on euthanasia, everyone was very supportive of his decision and me.
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Iâll share what I posted over on Horse and Houndâs forum.
So, not quite 24 hours of contemplation and I remain firmly fixed in the category of folks that commend her. Not just accepting her actions, but applauding them. Someone has to rejoice when people say âScrew the world⊠this is whatâs best for me.â
I know it seems odd, but this ranks, for me, as one of the hardest things a person can do. To ignore the tide and swim their own way, no matter the challenges and criticism.
I may never choose her path but I honor that choice and hope that the afterlife is a place that lives up to her hopes. Everyone should remember that the ârightsâ and âwrongsâ of the masses are only one piece of the whole puzzle. And those are never the ONLY choices.
RIP Caroline.
Em
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I guess itâs different when youâre talking about assisted suicide for someone who has a horrible terminal illness or condition with no prospect of getting better. I get that. But when I mentioned thinking about it in my post some weeks ago, every mention of the word was deleted by the mods. And on this thread people are not talking about just Caroline Marchâs condition and situation.
So Iâm worried that their posts will get edited.
I get it.
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So well said.
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I think itâs a very personal decision and she made the decision that was right for her.
I wish that it was a more accepted choice and option. That the taboo/stigma around patient assisted suicide was removed.
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Iâm unclear on what actually happened. It appears that assisted suicide is illegal in the UK. So did she take her own life without assistance? Itâs none of anyoneâs business except that the phrase âassisted suicideâ keeps being used and I canât understand if that is correct or not?
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Reportedly itâs doable in Switzerland.
Em
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Thank you, I wondered if maybe she had traveled to somewhere to end her suffering. Either way, I suppose it doesnât matter, I just truly wondered if it was being reported correctly. Godspeed to her and my thoughts go out to her loved ones.
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I would do what she did. We are at the age that elderly relatives begin dropping like flies and quite a few of them have had undignified and unnecessarily drawn out declines. My SO and our siblings and in-laws have promised each other we wonât let it happen again and we have the paperwork in place to back it up. I admire her for writing that letter: most of us would probably try to make ourselves look better after death but she was straightforward and transparent. And funny and insightful and sad she had to go but quite clear that she did. Everyone leaves eventually and Iâm glad for her that she was able to do it on her own terms.
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It is legal here in Australia.
Edit: I donât know the legalities of it in the UK, however.
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Iâve thought a lot about Caroline since reading her letter last night. I think the mental clarity and acuity of her letter tells us all we need to know: she was not depressedâat least not like she had been in the pastâbut simply could no longer live within the physical confines and limitations of her post-accident body. I can respect that, and I canât say that I wouldnât feel similarly in her shoes.
As someone who is a suicide survivor (a stranger killed themselves in front of me several years ago), I do with it was discussed more, with far less stigma and acceptanceâif for no other reason than saving people like me the trauma I now live with everyday. Maybe thatâs selfish, butâŠ
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Let me start with saying I believe in assisted suicide, I plan it myself if my cancer comes back and is untreatable. Having said that, her decision and letter were abelist crap. She was 31 and yes had a spinal injury. That by no means meant her life was over and wasnât worth living. Disability alone isnât to me a viable reason for assisted suicide. (I use a wheelchair btw). This was a person who chose not to see lots of options she had still, and that isnât to me a level of suffering to end her life. What does that tell thousands of other spinal cord injury survivors, ah well just chuck it. Same with that stupid movie a few years back. Disabled people donât want euthanasia for this very reason as a society the world at large limits us, not that we are incapable of living good lives but that making accommodations are kept from us by finances and policies (much like work at home that magically happened during covid when the disabled community has been asking for it for years). If disabled people arenât âproductiveâ in a capitalist system we have no value and deaths like Carolines are not valiant choices. They speak more of an attitude of abelism that becomes internalized to believe if we canât be the athelete or the physical person we once were, we have no worth or self worth. She literally came from the same country as Stephen Hawking who made contributions his entire disabled life that will be remembered for hundreds of years. Nope I donât see this as a heroic decision.
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Caroline said herself in the letter that even before the accident suicidal ideation was completely normal to her, so when faced with the accident and no further recovery her mindset was probably more leaning to not staying around. I have a family member left paraplegic after a work accident in his twenties, he went on to marry, have two children and runs a construction company so limits are what people accept or donât. No judgement at all on Caroline but I do think sheâs in the minority moving towards suicide in such a short time. I hope she found her peace.
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According to YOU. HER opinion is the only one that matters when it involves HER life.
The gall you have, just⊠wow.
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I thought you were a pro choice person? You know my body my decisionsâŠshe wasnât saying you or Steven Hawking should die. She just could not and would not like to life this way.
edited to add that maybe you should go read her FB and see who SHE was then you will have more empathy.
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I only see people claiming it was assisted suicide but there is nothing on her FB page that states this is what happened. Assisted suicide is illegal in the UK.
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According to YOU.
Caroline herself decided that for HER, her life wasnât worth living and we need to respect that.
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This has nothing to do with pro choice, abortion is a very different politicial animal. I find it interesting that able bodied people feel itâs appropriate to say they know more about her decisions than an actual disabled person. Anyone else non ambulatory? Or are you projecting what you worry about might happen to you and using Carolineâs story as inspirational? Deciding to die when her spinal injury didnât mean her life was over at all is inherently abelist. Her letter is dripping with it. What is galling is thinking that anyone thinks taking their life due to a disability is somehow peaceful. Millions of disabled people donât see it that way. Like I said I think there is an absolutely ethical use of medical assisted suicide, and in her case no, and whether anyone able bodied disagrees, they donât get it. Christopher Reeves was mentioned and what his life meant to spinal injured people was priceless, he brought awareness, raised money for research. His life mattered, why didnât Carolineâs?
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Are you Caroline March?
No?
Then I donât care if youâre a quadriplegic. I donât care WHAT disability you have. You donât have any right to comment on the decisions of another lucid adult, who chose a different path than you. You might want to think you do, but you donât.
Period.
Edit: I donât care what Reeve did. I donât care what you do. Or Hawking did. Caroline is in no way obligated to live a life of service, a life of activism, a life of crocheting, a life of ANYthing if she did not want to.
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