If I am damaged beyond reasonable repair, I want to die. I don't mean to pull my plug when I get the flu, but if I'm likely to wake up a quadripilegic or with severe brain damage. I think my tipping point would be if I were unable to feed myself or use the toilet without a personal wiper. I don't want to live like that.
I've felt this way for my entire life - the quality is much more important than the quantity.
OLK and I are in total agreement about this, and I don't doubt that she would honour my wishes no matter how hard it was or how angry it made my parents.
To take it one step further, I have recently been contemplating getting 'DNR' tattooed on my chest in large, easy-to-read letters. Just to make sure that a well-meaning paramedic doesn't crack my chestplate and break a bunch of my ribs trying to resucitate my unconscious and fatally damaged body. OLK was okay with that idea as long as she chose the font (i'm sure she'd vote for a conservative Helvetica or Arial - no gangsta "old english" for me).
Researching the topic online yesterday, I realized that a DNR request in this manner would never be respected. How could our friendly paramedic be sure that it wasn't someone's initials or that I had changed my mind after getting tattooed?
I was at the point where I was going to schedule my session at Exotix for the Saturday after returning from Antigua, just to keep from procrastinating (not because of the DNR, just because the chest is such a painful place for a man to get tattooed).
Alas, after discovering that it would likely be a huge waste of time, I'm not getting the tattoo.
Cool idea though and I'm with you on not being resuscitated when severe impact on quality of life would be involved. for me it would be if I were severely burned. Too much pain. No thanks.
ReplyDeleteWhat about a Medic Alert bracelet? Not cool looking, but it might be effective.
ReplyDeleteI also agree about the DNR. I'm terrified of chronic pain. And reliance on others.
Aren't you too young for a DNR? If I'm simply having a heart attack, by all means resuscitate. And if it doesn't work the first time, god damn it, try again. I'm too young to die.
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