アメリカの尊厳死。現在３州（ワシントン/オレゴン/モンタナ）が法的に医者の処方薬を許している。
Peter Goodwin: The Dying Doctor’s Last Interview
By Belinda Luscombe |March 14, 2012 |
Dr. Peter Goodwin, a family physician and right-to-die activist, took his own life on March 11, 2012, at age 83. He did it legally, with the blessing of his family and doctors, under the Oregon law allowing physician-assisted suicide — the first such law in the country — that Goodwin was instrumental in creating.
Dr. Goodwin granted TIME his last interview, four days before he died. (The full interview will be available online on Thursday and in print on Friday.) He did not look like a dying man; he was chirpy and alert and still had a mischievous twinkle in his eye. However, as a result of his fatal disease — a Parkinsons-like condition called coritcobasal degeneration — he could not use his right hand or do much reliably with his left. Walking was difficult for him and stairs were particularly treacherous. He did not want to die, but death was coming anyway, and he did not want to wait.
“I can no longer eat in public,” Goodwin said. “My balance is gradually deteriorating. My three doctors agree that I’m within six months of dying. My attending physician has given me a prescription for medication to end my life and I have had it filled.”
In Oregon, doctors may not administer injections to end a life, but they are allowed to write prescriptions for lethal drugs for mentally competent people who are able to take the medication without help and have less than six months to live. And yes, the prescriptions are covered by health insurance.
Dr. Goodwin took his life on Sunday not because he could not bear to live any more nor because he was in incredible pain, but because he wanted to die among family. He timed his death so that his four children and their spouses could be there, including his younger son, who is a Navy pilot in Korea. During our interview, he wept several times at the thought of no longer being involved in their lives.
Ever the activist — Goodwin was brought up in South Africa and his cousin was a defendant in the Rivonia trial alongside Nelson Mandela — the doctor wanted to make his death mean something. The moral question of whether doctors should be allowed to enable terminally ill people to kill themselves is not yet settled in the U.S. Currently physician-assisted suicide is permitted only in Oregon, Washington and Montana.
Oregon voters approved the Death With Dignity Act at the polls in 1994; it was enacted three years later, after they voted down legislation that would have repealed it. To date, 597 people have died under its provisions. Goodwin, who has himself helped three patients die under the legislation — and one patient even before the Death with Dignity Law — has fought tirelessly to change people’s attitudes about death, right up until his own.
Goodwin gave lectures and interviews as long as he was able about the importance of advance directives at the end of life as well as open and frank discussion with loved ones. He wanted the end of life to be as gentle as possible and within the patient’s control. He was also a big advocate of allowing dying people to receive hospice care early, rather than letting doctors continually try to cure them. “Physicians are taught to treat, and they often go on treating and treating and treating,” he said. “It’s very, very difficult because they have so much in their armamentarium — so many new ways of treating cancer, so many new ways of treating heart disease — it’s very difficult for physicians to give up.”
Goodwin passed, it seems, just as he wanted to: half an hour after taking the lethal dose of medication his doctor prescribed for him and surrounded by his children.
フェイスブックで自殺中継-台湾の女性
Woman's Facebook friends don't call for help as she commits suicide
The Taiwanese woman kills herself on her 31st birthday, posting photographs as her room fills with fumes.
Associated Press March 27, 2012, 2:55 p.m.
TAIPEI, Taiwan— A woman in Taiwan killed herself by inhaling poisonous fumes while chatting with friends on Facebook, and none of them alerted authorities, police said Tuesday.
Claire Lin killed herself on her 31st birthday, March 18, and family members who reported her suicide were unaware of the Facebook conversations that accompanied it, Taipei police officer Hsieh Ku-ming said.
Lin's last Facebook entries show her chatting with nine friends, alerting them to her gradual asphyxiation. One picture uploaded from her mobile phone depicts a charcoal barbecue burning next to two stuffed animals. Another shows the room filled with fumes.
One friend identified as Chung Hsin, told Lin, "Be calm, open the window, put out the charcoal fire, please, I beg you."
Lin replied: "The fumes are suffocating. They fill my eyes with tears. Don't write me anymore."
A few of the Facebook friends chatting with her tried to stop her and track her down on their own, but none called police. Chung did not respond to attempts to reach him for comment.
Lin's last words, in Chinese, were: "Too late. My room is filled with fumes. I just posted another picture. Even while I'm dying, I still want FB (Facebook). Must be FB poison. Haha."
Lin's Facebook postings indicated she was unhappy because her boyfriend was ignoring her, and had failed to return home to be with her on her birthday. Her boyfriend found her body the next morning and alerted her family, Hsieh said.
Hsieh said he regretted that none of her friends called police to help her during the 67-minute episode, but he added it may have been difficult for them to know her whereabouts because of the nature of social media.
"It could be true that it would be hard to track down a Facebook friend without her address or phone contact," Hsieh said.
Chai Ben-rei, a sociologist at Taiwan's Feng Chia University, said the incident reflected social isolation in the Internet age.
"People may have doubts about what they see on the Internet because of its virtual nature, and fail to take action on it," he said.
In a statement, Facebook said the company is deeply saddened by Lin's death and that the case serves as a "painful reminder of how people can help others who are in distress or need assistance."
Facebook's help page has links to suicide prevention hotlines in about 20 countries, including Taiwan, where the Taiwan Suicide Prevention Center's phone number and website are listed.
In the case of an emergency, however, Facebook urges users to call authorities immediately.
