what is a dignified death?
what is a dignified death
"Kill me, please."
The wife asked her husband Jeong (80 years old) for a year. Jeong was unable to comply with his wife's request. Because it's definitely murder.
My wife passed away from a stroke 20 years ago. My wife's condition worsened little by little, and she couldn't move at all. Jung is a multi-career who is responsible not only for taking care of his wife, but also for taking care of his children.
My son is 50 years old, but his body is at the level of 1st or 2nd grade in elementary school. He is 130 cm tall and weighs about 30 kg. My son was born with a disability. The development of the body and mind is slow. He was diagnosed with a complex disability. Still, to the Jeong couple, he is a son who does not hurt even if he puts it in his eyes. Jung's wife has never given her son physical therapy, rehabilitation, or even music therapy. However, his son's illness did not improve.
My wife, who had assisted her son for 30 years, died of a stroke. From then on, Jung had to take care of his wife and son. I also quit my job. The money I had saved and my house disappeared for hospital bills and care costs. My wife knew this. If he had been able to choose his own death, he would have made the decision, but since he couldn't even go to the bathroom by himself, he couldn't die without the help of others.
So, she asked her husband Jung to kill her. Jung, too, was so sick of nursing that he killed his wife and son, and thought of suicide countless times. When he heard that his wife asked him to kill him, he hugged his wife and son and just cried.
How long will you ignore the nursing problem?
There are cases of what is referred to as caregiver murder. The people who killed the caregivers were the sacrificial parents or those called filial piety and filial piety. However, it eventually collapsed in the endless tunnel of care. Debt snowballed, and the lives of other families plummeted.
It is estimated that one million patients are cared for at home. One in 20 households is caring for a sick family member in someone's home. Even at this moment, someone repeats the heavy labor of receiving the family's feces and feces, eating and changing positions to prevent bedsores, as in everyday life.
Jung and his wife must have thought, 'I want to finish everything even if I die'. A 50-year-old son died, and a month later his wife died. After sending the two of them to the sky, Jung is preparing for his end while volunteering at the hospice. While caring for his wife and son, and caring for the elderly in a hospice ward, Jung came to think about a dignified death.
In 2018, Korea can suspend treatment for life-sustaining with the consent of the individual and his/her family in accordance with the Life-sustaining Medical Determination Act. This is also called the Dignity Justice Act, but Mr. Jeong said that a true death with dignity requires being able to 'choose death on one's own'.
There are people who ask if choosing death is the same as suicide. Suicide is usually impulsive and violent. It is also painfully done in isolation or in seclusion. As a result, family and friends will bear unspeakable guilt and scars for the rest of their lives. However, legalized euthanasia is a mild and peaceful death performed after consideration of various circumstances. The understanding and help of family members is essential, and diagnosis and consultation with experts are required.
Jung said he wanted to be euthanized if he showed signs of paralysis even though he was mentally healthy. It is said that he seems to understand a little more about what his wife means by asking her to kill herself, saying that death is a dignified death when you can choose death like euthanasia.
As a result of a 2019 opinion poll conducted by the Seoul Newspaper and the non-profit public opinion network Public Opinion on 1,000 men and women nationwide, 80.7% answered that euthanasia is also necessary in Korea. The reason for the support of euthanasia was that 'the choice of death is a human right (52%)' the most. Next, the reason for favoring euthanasia was also because it can reduce the pain caused by disease (34.9%).
Jung must go to Switzerland to die with dignity. It also costs 2 million won. Wouldn't it be a dignified death to die in an unfamiliar foreign land? He insisted on enacting the euthanasia law, saying that if the euthanasia law is enacted in Korea, even without 20 million won, it is no