Of Pain, Life, Death and other things…

I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. We are getting old. I’m hitting twenty-something now, and kids in buses call me uncle instead of Aiya. Us getting older means our parents and grandparents are getting older too. I’ve kind of been conditioned to death in a sense, cos my maternal grandmother has been really ill for the past year or so, and now it’s a matter of time, or sorts.

Then it was Gutterflower’s mom going in for surgery to remove some tumours, my closest-thing-I-have-to-a-better-half’s mom getting a colonoscopy, which turned out to be clean, followed by pissu perera’s friend’s mom getting cancer, and this morning the wise-uncle-from-the-bus (who’s quite an interesting character, BTW) declared that his golaya is having cancer.

The contemplation on death is also fed by the unbearable amount of chronic pain that I have in my lower back. I’m becoming something in the line of a druggie. A House MD of sorts (I used to be witty, mean and sarcastic from before. It’s not anything new.), but it’s Tramadol, and not Vicodin in my case. I’m so hooked on the sensation of not having pain, that I pop the pills like I’m chewing M&Ms. And then it’s going back to my ADHD meds (Ritalin) to keep me awake, as Tramadol has quite a strong woozy feeling packed into it when it’s wearing off. And if you’re wondering, yes, I do have ADHD. I though you would’ve noticed by now.

My mother (who is in prime health) is adamant that if she is someday diagnosed with cancer, we shouldn’t treat her. She wants to live with it as long as she can, and then let the cancer take over. I’ve been telling her that I’m getting a court order which states she’s bonkers, and I’m going ahead with the treatment.

This got me thinking, if we look at it from a choice perspective, one should have the choice to make decisions about one’s health, including the choice of getting treatment or not. So what happens to deciding when I don’t want to live anymore? I don’t know if there is a possibility to leave DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) instructions in Sri Lanka. But I do know that the majority of medical professonals would not even consider euthanasia (Medically assisted death) which is a highly debated topic, since they are highly reluctant when it comes to abortions.

So the questions I’m laying out are,

1. Should one be able to refuse medical treatment?
2. Should euthanasia be allowed / legalized?
3. Should abortion be allowed / legalized?