Thanks for sharing your story. When black and white rules run into the real world they are not very useful. One of my goals in life is to die under my own terms like your mother. I think she was heroic... whatever that means. There is no question you both did the right thing.Nec_V20 wrote:I leave it up to you to decide after giving you all the facts at my disposal.
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What I did caused her to die hours earlier (without pain) than she otherwise would have (in excruciating agony). When however does murder start? At cutting a life short by seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years? Where is that boundary set?
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Where does one draw the line?
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Although what I did would meet the criterion of premeditated murder I don't feel like I belong in that class of people alongside the likes of a Ted Bundy
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Just as I shortened my mother's life and hastened her death but would not consider myself to be a murderer.
My mother-in-law died while she was in the care of my wife and I. She had terrible heart disease, diabetes, and loss of some of her mental capacity (she could hardly create any new long term memories). Her death was a horrible strain on my wife who had some depression afterward. My mother-in-law was convinced that she had to try every possible medical intervention to save her life. To make a long story short, she was kept alive for weeks on a ventilator slowing sinking away in horrible pain. She was too weak to get off the respirator. Her body started to decay and the family could only visit her with masks on due to the dangerous bacteria. The family finally decided to follow the doctor's advice to "aggressively control her pain." This was basically code for giving her enough morphine to stop her breathing.
Most of us have not learned how to die. I hope I make good choices when my time comes.