Rational suicide:

[grandmoon]

Beverley Broadbent was not dying of a terminal illness, nor was she depressed or unhappy. But at 83, she wanted to die.

After living a rich and satisfying life, the Brighton East woman said the ageing process had come to feel like a disease that was robbing her of her physical and mental fitness. In February, she said she had had enough.

''I look well and I walk well so people think I'm fine. But I have so many things wrong with me,'' she said. ''The balance is gone. It's taking so much time for me to keep fit to enjoy myself that there's not enough time to enjoy myself.''

In several interviews with Fairfax Media, Ms Broadbent said she planned to take her own life so she could have a peaceful, dignified death. She said she did not want her health to deteriorate to the point where she had dementia or found herself in a nursing home with no way out.

The environmental activist chose to tell her story because she believed many elderly people wanted to die when they felt their life was complete, but lacked the means to go gently.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/rational-suicide-why-beverley-broadbent-chose-to-die-20130401-2h34...

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/rational-suicide-why-beverley-broadbent-chose-to-die-20130401-2h34...

[meh_too]

How would posters feel if it was their Mother (that they loved) who decided to do this at 80+ years

I wouldn't want my mother to do this.

My dad basically did this. He had had enough and was ready to go.

I am not sad - my dad got to be where he wanted to be as he didnt want to continue without my mum, who had then been gone 3 years.

He said he had a good life, had happy and successful kids and grandkids, and had lived 30 years longer than his own father, and had no regrets. He was 82.

[cherry*135]

I actually think it makes a difference to elderly people if they have had their own children or not.

I can see why Beverly thinks she has had it with life. If,as assumed, she has no children (grand/great chldren of her own, she doesn't have to factor into account how they will feel if she takes her own life, if they will miss her, if they wish she hadn't done it.

Is there any published stories of elderly people who took the choice alone to go the rational suicide option that do have children, grand-children and great-grandchildren?

[cherry*135]

My Grandma lived till she was 105. If she bumped herself of at 83, that 22 years we would have been without her. She did wonder when she got past 100 why she was still here, as most of her friends had long passsed.

[cherry*135]

they don't have an obligation to order their lives according to the wishes of their adult children.

There comes a time (especially if  the elderly parent suffers from dementia) when the tables are turned you know (child/parent relationship) The adult children are the ones that make the choices (get parent assessed to see if they are able to continue to live in their own home etc), not the parent with dementia.

[cherry*135]

There is a lady that is a long-time caregiver in the home my Mum is in. Her husband (early 70's) had a bad stroke, and lives in the home now. He can't talk, is paralysed etc. His wife comes in everyday she is not working to feed him his dinner. She takes him home in the weekends in the day time.

Should he be bumped off?

[*crikey*mate*]

so what's so good about getting old?

I watch my aging parents now and can't help but think they really can't be enjoying their existence anymore.

My mother has all sorts of "little things" wrong, I mean things that irritate her that seem to come with age, but no terminal or serious illness' iykwim. She seems to get these little things more often, and each time it takes her longer to recover.

My dad, well he's a whole heap older than my mum, but just in the last few years I can see how much he has aged - how much he's slowed down, and it's gotta annoy him. His skin is more fragile now and even a small bump sees it break and him reaching for the bandaids. He is using the little motor more and more on his push bike these days, and not just to get up the big hills. He's really not into travel, but he and mum did the whole Leyland brother thing around Australia in an RV a fair few years ago - and mum won't get on a plane, so he went to Japan for a month last year, by himself. Dad won't go on a cruise - so mum went on one of those at Christmas time with some friends.

I dunno, but it's getting to the stage where someone is going to have to step in and stop dad driving, and I reckon that'll just about kill him.

Dad's happiest on the farm, but these days he struggles to do most of the stuff required, he just doesn't have the strength or the agility anymore, and he bleeds so easily. He even has a hard time getting on the horses these days, and I recently saw the hurt in his eyes, his loss of pride when he had to ask his 17 year old grandson for a leg up into the saddle. And at a trot, it just bumps his old bones around too much these days and he ends up in a lot of pain after a day on the horses. 

He can't take part in the cattle mustering on horseback these days, the pay off is a seat in a helicopter with a pair of binoculars - he can't actively participate in the dipping - and he can't load the tractor to take out the feeds.

I can't even remember the last time I saw him break up a body of beef or pitch in at the slaughter yards, something long gone because of the physical agility and strength needed to do either. Besides that technology has taken over most of the things he "used" to do.

He can't take part in a life he loves anymore and whiles away the endless hours of each day  reading the paper and playing lawn bowls - but even that now he can't do every day - he needs a bit of a rest in between as his back gets sore from the weight of the bowls.

My dad is getting old now, and the life he loves is slowly being torn away from him, but he has to keep getting up each morning and putting one foot in front of the other because "that's what he's supposed to do". It doesn't matter that it is costing him his pride or his sense of self worth - he just has to keep on going until his body just stops.

[freddie*rooster]

My mother is in her 90's lives in a retirement home, has onset of dementia, failing a little physically now. She doesn't express any desire to leave this world before natural death, so it is not an issue.

Same with the Princess, she's 88yrs in a Nursing Home, she has all her faculty's, apart from a few issues with her mobility she's fine.  There's no way she wants the lights turned out, she's having too much fun peeing everyone else off   :^O

[*crikey*mate*]

If I'm right and my dad really is tired of this world, then he'd have my blessing to just unroll his swag under a tree somewhere and just stop.

Same for mum - but she's never really enjoyed the farms - liked the city a whole heap better - she'd much prefer to go under a different set of stars LOL - those of a five star hotel, where the maid tuns down your blankets, peels grapes and waves palm fronds LOL. But I don't reckon my mum is "tired" of this world, at least not yet, so it's a moot point.

[*crikey*mate*]

The lady in the OP, I presume is single (no children). She also prepared early on by stocking up on the drugs used to kill herself.

If an elderly person is already in a retirement home, no access to drugs, has children... are one or all of the children going to agree to help them end their life early?

I can't whilst it is illegal to do so - but I'd have no problem with it, were I allowed to. But then, hey - if it were legal, then it'd be another moot point, cos in most cases, the elderly person could take care of matters them selves if they chose to.

[the_great_she_elephant]

There is a lady that is a long-time caregiver in the home my Mum is in. Her husband (early 70's) had a bad stroke, and lives in the home now. He can't talk, is paralysed etc. His wife comes in everyday she is not working to feed him his dinner. She takes him home in the weekends in the day time.

Should he be bumped off?

That should depends entirely on what those who know him best believe would be HIS wishes. One could just as easily argue should he be kept alive simply to give his wife a purpose in life.