I'm DONE!!

I have just completed my last online class at Ashford.  I am thrilled...to say the least!!!  But, I'll be back at it in the fall when I begin my Master's studies.  I have enjoyed my time at Ashford and appreciate the opportunity.  Thank you to all the instructors and students who made my time here enjoyable and memorable.

Assisted-Suicide:  For or against?

  Thesis

     It was a sunny, but cold November morning, when lying in his hospital room doctors informed him he had inoperable, incurable cancer.  Along with the grim diagnosis came a prognosis of two to three months to live.  He not wishing to die in the hospital, had the family arrange for a hospital bed to be set-up in the living room of his house and bring him home to die.  Oxygen was brought in for emergency usage and a potty-chair was set-up next to his bed.  Within 5 weeks of bringing him home, he could no longer walk, talk or eat.  This fun loving, sensitive man, dazed and confused and ravaged by a disease that no longer allowed him to enjoy food and the company of loved ones, laid in a hospital bed waiting for nature to take it’s ugly course.  One-and a half weeks later, Jimmie slipped away.  A skeleton of the man he once was.

     Just six months earlier, his niece had to make the agonizing decision to put down her beloved dog, Brandi.  It was clear that Brandi’s organs were failing and in order to spare her pet the pain and suffering of dying a slow, painful death, she placed Brandi in her car and drove her to the veterinary hospital.  The vet calmly explained that euthanizing Brandi was the right decision, and that surely she wouldn’t want Brandi to suffer needlessly.  So, with only the pinch of a needle, Brandi was gone in less than 5 minutes.  A peaceful and humane end.
     “To die at one’s own hand, or to allow a disease to ravage the body until it is so diminished it ceases to continue is a topic being discussed with family and doctors all over the world.  This topic is so controversial that it often creates an undue rift between family members, the dying individual, God and state.  Why is the idea of assisted suicide such a hard topic to deal with?  After all, we feel compassion and love in order to aid our beloved pet to a peaceful death when they no longer have a viable, sustainable life.  Therefore, why is it necessary to subject a loved one to the brutality of a disease when a viable life no longer exists and death is certain?

     A known death is certain, and hastening of a known death is a far cry from an actual death by suicide.  Certain death simply means that death is impending; a matter of time.  This certain impending death is a death that no amount of medical or emotional intervention can stop.  And, to hasten a death is merely speeding up the already known ending.  On the other hand, suicide is a death yes, but a death brought about due to impulse and despair.  A death that medical and emotional intervention could have prevented had the person reached out for help.” (Lombard, Sept. 2009, p.2-3). 

Oral History Subject

     Imagine she is only nine and traveling by boat for weeks to reach her destination - The Land of the Free.  Once arriving in this new country, her first experience is a stop at Ellis Island, where she is marked with an REJ label and detained.  She is then separated from her Aunt and Uncle, who have been cleared.  She is made to sleep in a crowded room with many other women with only a single bulb hanging from the ceiling for light.  Once the morning comes, she is released to her Uncle and Aunt, who waited outside all night in the cold to take her to her new home.  This is Adina Cascheras introduction to the United States of America.

     Adina was born Adina Gianfelice on January 19, 1927 in Palata, Italy; a southern province of Campobasso (Lynch, 2010, July).  She grew up in a tight-knit family in which religion and family were the main focus.  Her parents, like most Italian families, raised her with very specific and old-fashioned ideas about acceptable behavior for young girls and boys (Barone, 2006, P. 19).  She was always surrounded by family, extended family, and friends; laughing, playing and attending church, which prompts Adina’s memory of people in Italy as much more kind, warm, affectionate and holding a high degree of respect for their elders; unlike in the United States, where people hold back unless they know you well.    She continued by saying that in the United States people do not acknowledge you with a hello. They stare right ahead.  However, in Italy, where everyone was considered the same--Italians, they would greet you with enthusiasm;   especially in church.