Whether you agree with euthanasia or not, I suspect it will eventually become legal in most states. After all, one could say our death is the only “significant” day we don’t plan. Add in our love of control and well…

In the Aeon article below, Daniel Callcut points out an aspect of euthanasia I had not considered: it differs from suicide in that it is not performed by the person but for the person.

Callcut also brings up another angle: will you be able to afford the choice?

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DEATH BY DESIGN

Aeon Article, by Daniel Callcut

One day you wake early, walk into town, and a large advertising billboard attracts your attention. The image on the poster is mysterious but appears to depict a ceremony in a forest. You didn’t choose to come into this world, says the text across the middle, but you can choose how you leave. To the bottom right of the poster is a company name, Designer Endings, and contact details. You call the number and confirm that what is being offered is indeed the chance to die in just the way you would like.

The description is fiction – there aren’t currently any designer euthanasia organisations or companies – but it’s worth wondering why it isn’t yet fact. Many people no longer hold the kind of religious views according to which our time of death is not allowed to be of our choosing. There are an increasing number of countries where physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia is permitted in a medical context. But why think that the right to choose our ending is given legitimacy only, if at all, on health grounds? Why don’t we have the right to end our lives not just when we want to but to also do so in style?

You may not care what happens to your online presence after you die, but think again.

I subscribe to Leo Notenboom’s blog “Ask Leo.” Leo is a true geek who writes about computer issues – and 99% of the time his columns are “over my head.” However, I continue to read just in case I might understand.

This week’s article “What Happens When I Die?” is for all of us—geeks and non-geeks. It gives TalkingBittersweet readers a good roadmap for how to end a person’s online data and pictures.

Whoa! That last sentence sounds so final, doesn’t it? I did for me as I typed it. It shows me how digitally connected I am. Did you have the same reaction?

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What Happens When I Die?

Making technology both convenient and secure is a problem we deal with daily. We make trade-offs and use techniques that we hope strike an appropriate balance.

A more difficult dilemma that we rarely think about, however, is death. If something were to happen to you, would the people you leave behind be able to access the information they need? What happens to your encrypted data, online accounts, social media, online finances, pictures, and digital-whatever-else if for some reason you’re not around or able to access it?

I hear regularly from people frantically trying to access important, sentimental, or critical data that a recently deceased or incapacitated friend or family member has locked up tightly.

It’s not particularly pleasant to think about, but with all the security measures we put into place to keep bad people out, it’s worth having a plan for letting the good people in.

This week the website On Being showcased the article, “Living through Death: Love at the End of Marriage.” It is a young mother’s daily observations of her neighbors: a husband caring for his wife during her final days.

It is the most beautiful tribute to the process of dying and being cared for that I remember reading. Probably because it comes from a young person’s perspective.

I do prefer to read rather than listen, but both are offered. I suggest you read, so your mind can pause to imagine the scenes the author writes about.

Take care all of you Talking BS.com readers! May the wind be at your back this month.

>read article

A couple of months ago I read an article on the Book of Life website entitled, “Asking for Help.”  http://www.thebookoflife.org/on-asking-for-help/

It hit home.

Why?

I have a passion for art so every Sunday I look forward to reading Eric Rhoads’s blog, Sunday Coffee. Eric is a painter, who was once in radio and now owns the publishing company that markets Fine Art Connoisseur and PleinAir Magazines.

Recently Eric wrote about his trip to Portland to see Sean, a friend who had suffered a stroke. As he prepares for his trip, he moves through all of the questions we all ask ourselves when we know we are going to face a person who has little time to live.

Here are the highlights of Eric’s post, When Moments Matter.

Today’s post features a 2016 New York Times article, “My Marriage Didn’t End When I Became a Widow” by Lucy Kalanithi. I know it is now 2017, but I think it is important to hear Lucy’s voice before I introduce you to her husband, Paul.

When Lucy’s husband, a young and brilliant Stanford neurosurgeon, was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, he moved within the world of medicine from physician to patient. Lucy, also a physician, became his caregiver and the mother of a daughter conceived after Paul’s diagnosis.

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on his book When Breath Becomes Air. The book is beautifully written (not many physicians also have two degrees in English literature) and an inspiring memoir. It was named one of the best books of 2016 by the Washington Post, The New York Times and National Public Radio, and has 4.7 out of 5 stars from 6,265 readers on Amazon.

Janet Maslin from the NYT says: I guarantee that finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option. Part of this book’s tremendous impact comes from the obvious fact that its author was such a brilliant polymath. And part comes from the way he conveys what happened to him—passionately working and striving, deferring gratification, waiting to live, learning to die—so well. None of it is maudlin. Nothing is exaggerated. As he wrote to a friend: “It’s just tragic enough and just imaginable enough.” And I say just important enough to be unmissable.