Death With Dignity Quotes

“I lived my whole life following others’ wishes. Let me follow my own wish in my death.”
― Shon Mehta, The Timingila

“If the push towards life sustaining technology were balanced with options for comfort care in both medical school training and the healthcare culture, more people would have the chance to transition to death with dignity and grace.”
― Lisa J. Shultz, A Chance to Say Goodbye: Reflections on Losing a Parent

“I heard a lot about the idea of dying "with dignity" while my mother was sick. It was only near her very end that I gave much thought to what this idea meant. I didn't actually feel it was undignified for my mother's body to fail--that was the human condition. Having to help my mother on and off the toilet was difficult, but it was natural. The real indignity, it seemed, was dying where no one cared for you the way your family did, dying where it was hard for your whole family to be with you and where excessive measures might be taken to keep you alive past a moment that called for letting go. I didn't want that for my mother. I wanted her to be able to go home. I didn't want to pretend she wasn't going to die.”
― Meghan O'Rourke, The Long Goodbye

“Every woman deserves the simple dignity of dying in a bed with clean sheets and an electric light at hand.'

-spoken by Sara, the missionary doctor, during a moment of indignation.”
― Joe Niemczura, The Sacrament of the Goddess

“To transport this way along bouncy mountain roads is not the way to die. Every woman deserves the simple dignity of dying in a bed with clean sheets and an electric light at hand. They wanted me to participate in a horrible abomination. I simply will not countenance the lack of respect for the poor mother of those boys. Imagine how she would feel if she woke up and saw her sons piled at her side."
-spoken by Sara to Matt regarding a victim of Amanita Phalloides [poisoning”
― Joe Niemczura, The Sacrament of the Goddess

“Muriel tossed the earbud away. An identical thought surged through the group: I’m not going to die with somebody yacking in my ear.”
― Vincent H. O'Neil, A Pause in the Perpetual Rotation

“Muriel landed in the garden she’d planted that first morning, unable to breathe but that was okay. It would end where it started. No more cages, no more schemes, a final harvest.”
― Vincent H. O'Neil, A Pause in the Perpetual Rotation

“Life, simply for life's sake, is obscene. I'm so grateful that I live in a right-to-die state. "Keep your laws off of my body" definitely refers to more than the abortion issue. How DARE they try to make the decision for someone else?
Suicide is liberty.
For a terminally ill person, it can mean death with dignity, versus months and even years of suffering. It's not a popular view, for sure, especially regarding mental illness. However, the resulting loss of liberty, privacy and personal rights after an unsuccessful attempt is beyond cruel, in my eyes. Anyone who has spent time in an asylum can tell you that if you weren't 'crazy' going in, you'll lose your mind in there. To be talked down to like a child and patronized as a 'lesser' person takes its toll.
I have a feeling that this post may get me into trouble, but I felt as though it had to be said...”
― Lioness DeWinter

“Inexorably, efforts to combat disease or stave off death conflict with the need to maintain dignity. The currently popular phrase death with dignity is therefore quite misleading: it is not just that people want to die with dignity, but rather that they want to live with it. After all, dying is a part of life, not of death. It is precisely because many people live without dignity that they also die without it.”
― Thomas Szasz