I live near Kevorkian so this has been a hot topic for some time.
I do not know if I would legalize it but I would decriminalize it.
Mainly because I do not trust the govt enough for them to craft legislation that would deal with all the issues..
My dad died of cancer and there was no hope after the operation. He was given 6 months at best and decided to forgo the chemo. Had he been younger he might have decided otherwise although it would have made no difference. At the age of 85 he had been a healthy and vibrant person and much closer to 70 years old if one met him. To see him wither away was painful. I would have had a hard time letting him pull the plug on himself though.
On the other hand oddly enough I basically did that with my mother. She had complications after a knee replacement at the age of 90. Everything was fine for a week and then she had problems breathing. Ended up having COPD and congestive heart failure. Within a weeks time she reached a point despite a one day turn around where she was in horrible pain trying to get breaths. She knew she was dieing. she said so. One medicine was complicating the other and it reached the point of hopelessness. It was take her off medicine and bump of the morphine to make her comfortable or drag her thru another day or two or three in sheer misery. It was a difficult yet in a way easy decision to make. Within minutes she was in a coma and within a couple hours died.
Point being no two situations are alike. Maybe after seeing my father die as he did it made it clearer as to the choice to make with my mother. The govt can not know how to legislate this. So better to give it a wink and a nod. It happens more than one realizes probably. I am almost sure one of the nurses a couple of days prior to my mothers death gave a subtle hint as to what could be done to end this. She make a very clear statement about where the morophine was put away in a near by drawrer and to make sure not to touch it. we could have easily given a dose and nobody would have been the wiser.
