Euthanasia

Interviewer: What were your mother’s thoughts about having you help her
die?
Sarah: I think that my mother didn’t have any problem in me helping her die as
she once told me “Just put a pillow over my head", but I was the issue. I
couldn’t do it, I did not have that courage, that is why I watched on of the final
episodes of the TV drama ‘The Americans'.
Interviewer: How did seeing your mum in that situation make you feel?
Sarah: I felt uncourageous and It was like the world was coming to an end but
also I was scared because euthanasia is illegal in the state of New york
meaning that I cant call a hospital regarding advice on how to do it because I
would have been arrested.
Interviewer: What kind of person was your mother?
Sarah: My mother was a very practical person. Her and I started talking about
this when she received her diagnosis about three months ago. Moreover she
did not want to go through chemotherapy, She said that she would rather die
than lose her hair to the oncologist. She thought that chemotherapy would not
make any differences and she said it was temporary not permanent. I think
that my mother was ready to be hit by the final blow.
Interviewer: What do you think about euthanasia?
Sarah: I think that euthanasia is a positive thing and should be legalised
worldwide because I am sure I’m not the only one dealing with this. Where I
live euthanasia is illegal but in countries like Switzerland it is completely ok to
perform this action.
Interviewer: What do you think of Hospice nurses?
Sarah: Hospice nurses are not allowed to assist the end of life in that way,
everything that my mother was experiencing signalled that she was already
very close to the end of her life, so euthanasia which is a legal method in some
countries and compassionate way to keep a person comfortable when they are
leaving this world. It is understandable that people want the end to come
sooner when they are suffering, and no one should feel legally threatened that
someone is going to report them for wanting to have that conversation or for
feeling those concerns. I only wish that people could understand that death
does not have to be as scary an experience as we think it will be, and that with
the proper support and medications, the end of life can be a very peaceful and
spiritually healing time.
Interviewer: In the end, how did your mother die?
Sarah: In the beginning, I panicked, I did not know what to do and the amount
of drugs to give her. I was thinking to myself, ’What if Mom chokes, vomits,
falls into a half-dead limbo, wakes up and yells at me?’ I give her some drugs
and then she wakes up 20 minutes later ready to fall asleep but not to wake
up. I wonder what to do and I pick up Charlotte’s Web and read the final two
chapters, in these chapters Charlotte dies and I think my mother’s soul also
started to escape her body.