This is a real issue that needs real discussion, especially as it relates to the truly elderly.
The grandmother of a friend, on the occasion of her 98th birthday, was asked, “Well, Grandma, you gonna make it to 100?” She replied, “I hope not.” Actually ended up making it to 103, but while her mind was still pretty sharp, her body had let her down in almost every way. No thanks.
Bodily autonomy for all!
“He wishes to have no funeral, no remembrance service or ceremony,” the group said in a statement. “David has no belief in the afterlife.”
Why does this make me so sad? I mean I get it intellectually, it just saddens me emotionally. I think we are part of the universe that has been snatched away for a few years to live in these vesicles but it still makes me sad.
People die senselessly and unjustly and live short painful lives etc so this gentleman was profoundly and cosmically lucky (as I am) but its hard for me not to relate to him and be saddened by his death for some reason.
It seems odd that his desire not to have a remembrance service or ceremony should be connected to his lack of belief in an afterlife. Or perhaps they were referring specifically to some kind of religious observance.
By that age, people have often outlived almost all of their immediate families and colleagues, so any kind of remembrance ceremony is going to be a little weird.
Pentobarbital is commonly used to “put down” quickly and in a humane way pets that are seriously ill. Quickly - less than a minute for a medium size dog. It is apparently painless for (elderly) humans, even if it takes somewhat longer. Makes me wonder why death penalty executions (of which I don’t generally approve) seem to be such a difficult process. Even if some pain were involved, why couldn’t ordinary nonfatal anesthetics be administered first?
Pharmaceutical companies that made drugs used in lethal injections were under immense pressure from everywhere else on the planet that doesn’t have a death penalty and in 2016 Pfister restricted some of its products from being used for lethal injection. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-end-of-the-open-market-for-lethal-injection-drugs
It’s not just the pharma but also the medical professions. Doctors who participate in executions are (in many countries) subject to investigation and possible professional sanctions. And with the ongoing trend against capital punishment, the shrinking group of people who want to make a profession of figuring out how to kill people in a judicial context tend not to be the best and brightest. (There are some jobs where a desire to do it is too often a sign that you shouldn’t be doing it.)