Blog Index

I'm creating this blog index so that people can choose to read, or not read, specific posts here at the blog. Some of the material is painful and upsetting, and I certainly do not want to hurt anyone with what I write here. At the same time, there are some painful and upsetting things I feel compelled to document, and I hope that documenting in a public way the failures of our current medical and legal system will contribute to the change we need.

Here are the posts you will find at the blog:

Thoughts about Death and Dying. This is the first post I wrote at the blog, sharing my reasons for wanting to educate myself and to do so in a public way.

Obituary. This is the obituary that my father wrote to share at the funeral home website... and here is a post with two very sweet pictures from my dad's 80th birthday.

17 Days. This is a post where I document some of the details of my mother's dying. It was hard to write, and I imagine it will be hard to read. If anyone is reading this blog who knew my mother personally, you may or may not want to read this post. For people who did not know her, I hope you will read this post in order to appreciate what can and does happen to people who have to die on their own in this way.

The End. This is the post I wrote when my mother was finally able to die.

Cause of Death. The death certificate says my mother died of emphysema, but that is not true. My mother died of starvation, and we should not let the state bureaucracy cover that up.

~ ~ ~

To learn more, I am finding Twitter to be a very useful tool to connect with organizations like Death with Dignity and Compassion and Choices; you can see a list of the organizations I am following at Twitter here: Death With Dignity Organizations at Twitter. 

I have created a widget in the sidebar of this blog with the latest news from these organizations, along with another widget tracking the #DeathWithDignity hashtag.

If you have suggestions for other organizations I should add to my Twitter list, please let me know!

Recent media coverage:

• NPR host Diane Rehm emerges as key force in the right-to-die debate (February 14 2015). As it happens, I had read this article just a few days before my mother made her own choice.
• Offering a Choice to the Terminally Ill (March 14 2015). Important editorial in the New York Times.
• A Pioneer for Death With Dignity (March 18 2015). Opinion piece in NYTimes about Senator Frank Roberts of Oregon who sponsored one of the nation’s first death-with-dignity bills.

Death is a debt to nature that must be paid.

(English proverb)