Hi Camilla: Excuse me for jumping in here. I love you
dearly and respect your opinion, and I can't speak for
janet, BUT...I feel that what makes CD such a monster is
that the way it distorts your perceptions. How can one make
a rational decision re: ending one's life while in the grip
of such debilitating anhedonia? But then I also feel that
the mentally ill have the right to refuse their medication
and revert to their psychotic state only after we have
exercised their right to become sane by "forcing" them to
take their meds-a currently politically incorrect opinion.
Carole
--- Camilla Flintermann <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Janet-- of course you--like anyone--are entitled to
> your opinion. May
> I suggest that there are differing ones on this subject?
> I think that in
> SOME SITUATIONS, DEPRESSION IS NOT THE MAJOR FACTOR--and
> I am not speaking
> of Paige, who may well have been a victim of CD--I have
> no way of knowing
> that.
>
> The Hemlock Society takes the view that there are times
> when a perfectly
> rational person who is suffering from an incurable
> disease and whose
> quality of life is *for them* unacceptable, may make that
> choice, with the
> knowledge of loved ones. This, I think, implies that it
> is NOT an act of
> depression and desperation, when loving families are
> involved. Think of
> the example of the very frail elderly person, bedridden
> in a nursing
> home, who simply turns to the wall and refuses
> nourishment---that person
> is not necessarily depressed, but may simply feel that
> "the time has come
> to leave".
>
> I respect the fervor of your concern re: CD, based on
> your personal
> experience and your situation--but please also respect
> the feelings of
> those who may differ with you, and who may be in a very
> different situation
> from yours and those you are writing about. As a
> counselor, there were
> times when I struggled to keep potentially suicidal
> clients from acting
> out the wish, till help could be found for their
> depression.
> Can't we just agree that like most things in life, this
> question may have
> more than one answer?
>
>
>
> >At 06:25 AM 2000/07/03 -0400,
> >"Judy George <[log in to unmask]>" wrote, in part:
> >>...paige bremer may have weighed up her future and made
> a
> >>choice as many of us may do i respect her right to do
> that
> >>and admire her courage...
> >
> >the concept of suicide as an act of courage
> >rather than the final act of despair and desperation
> >of an individual in agony and distorted thinking
> >strikes me as irrational balderdash
> >which only contributes to the demeaning misconceptions
> >and cruel ignorance clouding issues around clinical
> depresssion
> >and its curability
> >
> >
> >but then again, that's only my opinion
> >
> >janet
>
>
>
>
> Camilla Flintermann
> Oxford,OH
>
>
> <[log in to unmask]>
>
> On PDWebring at :
> http://members.tripod.lycos.nl/genugten/flinterm.htm
>
> *** *** *** *** ***
> *** *** ***
>
> We agree to differ...
> we resolve to love...
> we
> unite to serve.
> *** *** *** *** ***
> *** *** ***
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