If I ever face a terminal diagnosis (other than the one that everyone has by virtue of currently being alive) I will most likely NOT avail myself of the option. But I will be glad that it is there if circumstances (pain/cost) become unbearable… even if I never use it.

I suppose that most of us, by the time we hit our 50s, 60s, 70s, have witnessed a few friends and/or relatives die from accidents and/or disease.

I've watched morphine given in maintenance doses to relatives for whom there was no hope, were wasting rapidly; bed-ridden, end stage. Suffocating on a ball of phlegm; not a pleasant thing to witness and a thing to which I would prefer to not be subjected.

My friend, on the other hand, suffering end stage cancer with no more than a week to go, asked for the "the pill" while he was still capable of making that choice. It was a dignified process. He just went to sleep. I salute his choice and would hope I have the courage to make the same decision.

A morbid topic, but in the wake of Raul Malo's rapid progression this month, I'm reminded it's an issue that ought to be addressed in one's advance directive.

Malo, who was battling stage 4 colon cancer and leptomeningeal disease, passed away on Dec. 8.

And just to keep it relevant to the US Policy theme.... Raul thought Trump was a malicious asshole who needs to go!

yahoo.com - Country music star warned trump

“The words ‘liberty and justice for all’ have faded into a distant past, “To some of us those words were deeply personal. My family came here because of those words. I was born here because of those words. I have had an extraordinary life because of those words. And now those words have lost their meaning. They are now abstract concepts used to inflict cruelty and suffering on the unsuspecting, the weak, the sick, the poor, the needy. We can add Purple Heart war veterans to that list as several have been deported already. This is America right now.

Some will tell me that I should leave the country or my favorite ‘shut up and sing (A statement so void of any sense that it is impossible to execute)’. “On the ‘leaving’ part … that may come true whether I want to leave or not.
The way the new law stands my mother could be stripped of her naturalized citizenship, then my sister and I would be illegal birthright citizens and away we go. As far as ‘shut up and sing’ well, clearly that’s not happening. You see the thing is this is my country too. Always has been. My country has been that beacon on the hill for so long and for so many.”
“As Lady Liberty’s flame dims with every atrocity committed in her name, we will not be afraid of the dark,” he wrote. “We will find the light again.”