Imagine you had a terminal disease. Your doctor told you that it was inevitable that you would soon find yourself in pain, unable to take yourself to the bathroom (and thus suffer the indignity of adult diapers and the associated exposure of your parts to whoever was taking care of you. Flashback to the scene in Weeds where Andy looks disturbed and says, "I just saw my grandmother's vagina". Pleasant for all participants, no doubt), sometimes unable to move, often on a morphine drip (with the associated chronic constipation, which can't be pleasant when s**ting in a nappy), and costing your family a fortune in care. I'm sorry to tell you that these things come with old age as well.
I decided long ago that if I needed to suffer that, I'd want to be "taken to the vet and put to sleep"! Many elderly folk feel the same way as me, it would seem. The Australian government, in its immense wisdom, decided to block the site of an organisation, Exit International, to prevent people from investigating it. Here comes the awesome part: the Pirate Party of Australia decided to offer hacking lessons for the elderly so they could find out about it. As a party that is mainly a boycott vote, I think that's awesome! Remember when the Green Party was a token vote? Well, they're still a token vote, but their beliefs seems to have permeated into mainstream culture because they said something loud enough for long enough to make people listen.
I know it's idealistic of me to hope that one day we'll have euthanasia (and sex workers' unions, and decriminalised drugs, and...) just because there are people trying to get into positions of power around the world in order to lobby for these things. It would be awesome, though, if we could choose when to end it if the pain gets too bad. I was going to contemplate the guest-list for my Going To The Vet party, but realised two things: 1) it's probably a bit morbid to attend your own pre-funeral and 2) I'm not sure who'll still be alive (and arthritis-free enough) to do the Funky Chicken with me.
I decided long ago that if I needed to suffer that, I'd want to be "taken to the vet and put to sleep"! Many elderly folk feel the same way as me, it would seem. The Australian government, in its immense wisdom, decided to block the site of an organisation, Exit International, to prevent people from investigating it. Here comes the awesome part: the Pirate Party of Australia decided to offer hacking lessons for the elderly so they could find out about it. As a party that is mainly a boycott vote, I think that's awesome! Remember when the Green Party was a token vote? Well, they're still a token vote, but their beliefs seems to have permeated into mainstream culture because they said something loud enough for long enough to make people listen.
I know it's idealistic of me to hope that one day we'll have euthanasia (and sex workers' unions, and decriminalised drugs, and...) just because there are people trying to get into positions of power around the world in order to lobby for these things. It would be awesome, though, if we could choose when to end it if the pain gets too bad. I was going to contemplate the guest-list for my Going To The Vet party, but realised two things: 1) it's probably a bit morbid to attend your own pre-funeral and 2) I'm not sure who'll still be alive (and arthritis-free enough) to do the Funky Chicken with me.
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