The final ending: The supreme opportunity for courage (and dignity)

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When the time comes, will you be waiting to be pushed off the cliff?

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My maternal grandmother lived a happy life, except for her last eight years. The last eight years were bedridden and chronically painful. She was robbed of her ability to do the things she really cherished, to walk through her beloved woods and read from her many books.

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Why should such a beautiful life be tarnished by the misery of those last eight years?

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Of course, I am not saying that I or anyone else has the right to say when any other person should choose to end their own life, to jump off the cliff, instead of being pushed. I am saying that there are so many benefits available to all of us if we clearly look at and validate the possibilities for each of us to consider the option for ourselves of "quitting when the quitting's good." 

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If we neglect to do this, then we'll likely end up "throwing good life after bad." 

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By taking the responsibility, considering both our Now and our Next, our Oneself and our Others, of clearly choosing when we will die, even if it's "only when I am pushed over the cliff," then we can more easily have lived and ended by the words, “Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened.” by Dr. Seuss.

 

Unnecessary pain and suffering

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So much unnecessary suffering is incurred because we resist, rather than embrace, the endings that would serve us, and others, best.

 

• Consider all the suffering created by our resistance to divorce.

• Consider all the suffering created by our resistance to leaving a job.

• Consider all the suffering created by our resistance to ending unsupportive relationships.

 

The disgrace of the modern world

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However, the true horror in our modern world is the suffering we inflict on ourselves and our loved ones by not embracing the final ending, at least for this earth in this body: death.

 

When continued suffering of a loved one, including yourself, is a foregone conclusion, when no one can offer anything other than solace, I believe it’s time to choose the ultimate act of courage to end life with dignity.

 

Do you have plan B ready to execute for yourself when appropriate? I do.

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Have you faced the question for yourself of creating and embracing your death at a time when you can still say, “I have lived a magnificent, fulfilling life and I'm ready to say goodbye now"? Will you choose to jump off the cliff?

 

Or are you putting this issue off, with the distinct possibility that you're setting yourself up to experience endless months and years of chronic pain and hopelessness, along with the suffering your loved ones will bear as you get pushed closer and closer to the edge of the cliff? Will you choose to fight back until the bitter end?

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Honor yourself for choosing the courage to face that question now.

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Know your options

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For further information, read the book Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying by Derek Humphry.

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See also Quitaverance, Quitaverance: knowing when to quit, and Quitting: the unacknowledged virtue

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