DEATH--PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS---"Timely death" is better than "hastened death".
discussing the terms we use in the right-to-die debate
"hastened death"—"timely death"
by James Leonard Park
OUTLINE:1.
WHAT ARE WE HASTENING?
AND DO WE WANT
TO HASTEN IT?
2.
HOW PEOPLE WHO CHALLENGE THE 'RIGHT-TO-DIE'
MIGHT USE THE
EXPRESSION "HASTENED DEATH".
3. "TIMELY DEATH" MIGHT BE BETTER THAN
"HASTENED DEATH".
4. CAN PEOPLE WHO OPPOSE THE
RIGHT-TO-DIE
MISUSE THE
EXPRESSION
"TIMELY DEATH"?
5. "CHOOSING A VOLUNTARY
DEATH"
MIGHT BE
BETTER THAN
"HASTENING DEATH".
6. WE WANT TO AVOID
DELAYED DEATH —DYING THAT IS UNNECESSARILY PROLONGED.
When we refer to the practice of shortening the process of dying,
the
result is sometimes called a "hastened death".
But is
this expression ambiguous and misleading?
First, the final "d" of the word "hastened"
and
the beginning "d" of the word "death"
are
often run together.
It sometimes sounds like "hastendeath".
Extra
effort is needed to pause between the words.
1.
WHAT ARE WE HASTENING?
To hasten something
means to make it happen sooner.
Hasten means to hurry
up:
"Hasten, Jason, bring the basin. Oops, slop, bring
the mop."
"Hasten" is really a rather archaic
word,
almost never used in ordinary writing or conversation.
Can
we think of any other context in which "hasten" appears
regularly?
When we think of a walkerhastening,
we see him walking faster to get to his
destination more quickly.
Is walking faster the kind of image we
want
when we are talking about end-of-life choices?
"You're
dying? Hurry up!"
Wouldn't it be wiser to take each step
slowly and carefully,
avoiding mistakes that might cause a
premature death?
A similar word in
English is "hustle".
Members of the sports team are
encouraged to hustle.
When death is the context, the
connotations turn negative.
No one wants to be hustled into
death.
That suggests coercion or manipulation.
Hustlingand careful dying do not seem to go together.
A more common English word is "hasty".
And some of its
connotations surely rub off on the word "hasten".
"Hasty"
means that we act in a hurried or rushed manner.
When
things are done "in haste", they are often done poorly.
Who
would favor a "hasty death" or a death achieved "in
haste"?
If anything, we want to bemore careful about our end-of-life choices
than any other
decisions we make in life.
A life-ending decision has permanent
results:
The patient is dead now and forever.
Once death
has been achieved,
we cannot go back to correct mistakes.
Do we really want to say that we approve of "hastened
death"?
Rather, we favor life-ending decisions that are:
thoughtful, careful, well-planned, & fully-discussed.
Appropriate safeguards have been used for this life-ending decision.
Fulfilling several meaningful safeguards does not
suggest
a hasty process, a decision made in haste,
or even a "hastened death".
It is better to
exercise too much caution
than to reach a life-ending
decision in too much haste.
Rushing any process of making life-ending decisions
might cause
serious, irreparable mistakes.
For ourselves, we want death to be
chosen very carefully,
to be achieved at the best timerather than hastened.
Dying at the best time means achieving a "timely death".
2.
HOW PEOPLE WHO CHALLENGE THE 'RIGHT-TO-DIE'
MIGHT
USE THE EXPRESSION
"HASTENED DEATH".
Whenever we are choosing the most appropriate language
for the
end-of-life choices that we want to ensure,
we should consider how
people who oppose such options
are going
to use or misuse any expression we might choose.
What do we think of the following sentence?
"I strongly
oppose any form of hastened death."
On first reading, this
does not seem to be an outlandish statement.
This statement
opposes some forms of human behavior.
And this condemned behavior
seems to be hastening death,
—bringing death too soonor prematurely.
These opponents are saying that no one
should hasten death.
Perhaps they favor letting death come in its
own way, in its own time.
They might say they favor a natural
death.
Some opponents of the
right-to-die will surely muddy the waters
by claiming that ahastened death is the same as a premature death.
But
premature death is a danger we all want to
avoid.
We favor all rational choices at the end of life,
not
merely the option of dying quickly.
We want
death to come not too soon and not too late.
What alternatives to "hastened death"
might prevent such
distortions by the opposition?
3. "TIMELY DEATH" MIGHT BE BETTER THAN
"HASTENED DEATH".
Whenever "hastened death" appears in our speech or in our
writing,
we should think of better ways of saying what we
mean.
"Timely death"is very appealing.
And when we have enough time or space to explain what we mean,
we can say that a "timely death" means not too soon and not too late.
We are choosing the best time to die.
Most human beings are doomed
to die too soon.Our lives will be cut short,
ended before we have achieved all of our possible meanings.
But with the advent of
life-support systems,
we might now live too long.
what will be said about the timing of our deaths?
We might have passed the best time for us to dieyears before.
Could it be said that we died too late?
When we use the expression "timely death",
we encourage
deeper thinking about its meaning.
This expression does not say
in order to have a 'timely death'.
We want to avoid two extremes---dying too soonand dying too late.
A "hastened death" always means
shorteningthe process of dying.A "timely death" would sometimes mean
continuing to live until some significant event has been fulfilled.
Seeking a timely deathcould easily mean trying to live longer.
When we really do mean
shortening the process of dying,we can use that expression or another like it.
What is theduration of the downward journeythat ends in death?
When it is absolutely certain that death will result,
few of us want unnecessarily to prolong the process of dying.
And because of medical advances, most of us who are now alive
And if we are no longer able to make our own medical decisions,
family members (or more formal proxies)
will make medical decisions that will affect the exact time of our deaths.
We hope that all due consideration will be exercised
in making
the decisions that shape our last year of life.
When we consider
the end of our own lives,
we hope for the
We like the idea of planning our last days
in order to achieve the
most meaningful end for our lives.
Who would prefer to be
remembered as having a "hastened death"?
Wouldn't we
prefer to have it said that we had a "timely death"?
Not
too soon and not too late.
4.
CAN PEOPLE WHO OPPOSE THE RIGHT-TO-DIE
MISUSE
THE EXPRESSION "TIMELY DEATH"?
Is it possible to say anything negative
about a timely death?
Opponents might claim that it is a code word
for 'pulling the plug'
or hastening death in some other way.
But
even if they do object to the expression "timely death",
they
will have to utter or write the words "timely death".
What opponent would use the following sentence?
"I strongly
oppose any form of timely death."
That would sound as foolish
as saying:
"I strongly oppose any form of good death."
Is "timely death" a bullet-proof expression?
Whoever
tries to shoot at "timely death"
finds that the bullet
bounces off harmlessly
or ricochets to wound the shooter.
Let's see if "timely death" or "death at the best
time"
might be good substitutes for "hastened death".
We might substitute a more thoughtful expression
every time we
are tempted to say "hastened death".
5. "CHOOSING A VOLUNTARY DEATH"
MIGHT BE BETTER THAN "HASTENING DEATH".
The active form would be "to hasten death" or "hastening death".
We find this expression is such statements as:
"The patient decided to hasten his death."
Or "The family agreed to hastening death."
If we think carefully about what we are saying here,
it might
easily seem that we are
A better expression might be "choose a voluntary death".
Here
there is no danger of seeming hasty and unthoughtful.
The above
statements would then be:
"The patient chose a voluntary
death."
Or "The family agreed to a voluntary death."
Here the emphasis shifts from
how much time it takes to dietohow free and uncoerced the choice was.
When we introduce the new concept of
voluntary deathinto the debate,we will need to distinguish it as clearly as possible from irrational suicide.
We can find common ground with the opposition
in attempting to prevent all irrational suicides and premature deaths.
Here is an essay distinguishing these two key concepts:
Will this Death be an "Irrational Suicide" or a "Voluntary Death"?:
And once again, it is difficult for the opposition to say:
"We oppose every form of voluntary death."
But it makes good sense for everyone to say:
"We oppose all forms of irrational suicide and premature death."
6. WE WANT TO AVOID DELAYED DEATH
—DYING THAT IS UNNECESSARILY PROLONGED.
When we choose a timely death for ourselves and/or others we love,
we
are hoping not for a sudden rushing at the end of life.
Rather, we
hope to proceed with "all deliberate speed"—not
too fast and not too slow.
When our lives
as persons are drawing to a close,
we want first to make certain
that we could never return
to the daily lives that we knew and
appreciated.
But when we are convinced that death is
inevitable,
then we want to avoid unnecessary
delays on
the way to death.
Why increase the number of days of terminal
suffering?
And if the patient is unconscious—and
therefore no longer suffering—
what
purposes are served in continuing life-supports?
Even people who initially thought they opposed the
'right-to-die'
might agree that grandmother should not have her
body kept 'alive'
as long as technologically possible.
What
might convince the original opponents of a chosen death
that this
dying process has been prolonged long enough?
Can we agree that we want to avoid unnecessarily-prolonged
dying?
And
if so, what should we call this? Timely
death?
Sometimes
we can substitute "shortening
the process of dying".
Created
February 24, 2007; revised 3-8-2007; 3-15-2007; 3-22-2007; 4-1-2007;
4-3-2007 4-4-2007;
1-18-2008; 9-1-2008; 1-10-2010;
1-18-2012;
1-19-2012; 2-12-2012; 2-22-2012; 3-29-2012; 7-18-2012; 9-12-2012;
5-4-2013; 6-22-2013; 5-26-2014; 7-18-2014; 11-16-2014; 5-1-2015;
7-7-2015;
3-24-2018; 10-6-2018;
Can we think of other alternatives for these misleading phrases?
What could replace "hastened death" and "hastening death"?
Additional alternatives can be added to this chapter.
This critique of the expression "hastening death"
is also
entitled Could "Timely Death" Replace "Hastened Death"? If you agree that we should use the most appropriate language,
perhaps you would like to join a Facebook Seminar
discussing and revising this whole book.
See the complete
description for this first-readers book-club:
Join our Facebook Group called:
Safeguards for Life-Ending Decisions:
Read about "physician-assisted suicide"—"physician aid in dying".
Read about "medication"—"life-ending chemicals".
Read about "euthanasia"—"gentle death".
Go toSafeguards for Life-Ending Decisions
Go to
the beginning of this websiteJames
Leonard Park—Free
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