End of Life: Making Your Death Useful.

It is unlikely I will live much longer -- won't go into the details nor do I seek sympathy -- but the last thing I want is to pass on in a hospital. So I'm thinking, how can I make my last breath useful to others? Donate my organs while I'm still alive? Dump my body into a forest so it nourishes a struggling tree?

It would be fun, too, to make my death interesting, so morbid as that sounds, I've contemplated that, too. Personally, I think it would be cool to be eaten by a bear but go down fighting, and I doubt I'd be afraid. Or, perhaps, just skydive off of a cliff and forget to open the chute. To some, this will sound creepy, but when you're looking over the edge of a cliff anyway, you think differently.

I'm already doing the living end-of-life things; finishing my two books, sending the family treasures off to those who will cherish them, and organizing my papers.

Suggestions?

 

Since death is an inevitability the most useful thing I could do if in your shoes is to consider ways of engaging some of the living in the process on the concept of accompanying to the living edge of the journey and seeing me off to the other side with the intent of making it less of a scary process- seeing that it is in everyone's future. Much depends on how (or if) you look at the spiritual side of things- and no, I'm not prepared to argue that point because it's up to the individual to determine the nature of that.

You seem to have a matter-of-fact state of mind about the process which is a good thing- it would lend itself well to this objective.

 

For my two cents I'd have to say I'd try to decide where I felt the most beautiful spot on earth I had seen was and try to time it so as to be there, letting my last impressions of this fading world be as plesant as possible.

I guess I think of Death as being strange and unusual enough of an experience to not want to seek out one last thrill where I could shuffle off the mortal coil mid-stunt, but then that's just me, you may be more of an adrenal junkie than I am?

 

My plan to make my death useful involves Karla Homolka and a shot gun.

 

there's always donating your body to a med school or something.

if it's a disease that you have, maybe you could give your body to someone who is researching it in hopes of finding a cure.

at the other end of the spectrum, there's always suicide bombing.

 

Your situation and how you apparently are handling it earns you my respect, and makes me ponder own life and what I should do with its remainder. Thank you for that. I do not have a specific suggestion that I deeply believe in to offer. If I were in your shoes I might forgive my worst enemy, and if that person wasn't actually myself I'd make certain he knew I forgave him.

Fairwell, King.

 

That's all I could think off....for me personally being gay I always thought that jumping of the Sydney Harbor Bridge with a back pack off gold glitter down the funnel of the QE 2 as she sail under the bridge would be a fitting end for me ...a big poof of glittery smoke ... Fabulous :2thumbsup: Peace K o Z

 

Here is a good movie that touches on this subject, THE BUCKET LIST movie,
maybe it would give you some ideas. It is well done and leaves you
with a good feeling. Maybe you could do THE BUCKET LIST before leaving
your body. Hope you get well anyway, don't know what you have, but life can surprise you. Best to you friend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc3mkG21ob4

 

Odd that some people come up with a quippy, flippant comment to such a serious question. The after-death parts of the transaction are a breeze, so sure I will donate my body parts. What I'm pondering is what could I do with the final hours to make my passing more useful? What can a person who has nothing to lose do that others can't?

Please skip the suicide bomber remarks.

 

Making peace with those that have crossed you or you have crossed, comes to mind. Although it may be difficult to reach all of them, at least one or two.......

 

This is a very complex and difficult situation .You have accepted the fact the your death is near and you are at peace with that but what about your loved ones .Obviously they dont want you to suffer but they dont want you to die either .

Are you in pain ? If yes then maybe its go out with as much diginity as you can , quick and as painlessly as possible if that requires jumping of cliff and your are "comfortable" with it -then do it , if you have no pain then plan it carefully and die as you lived.

I have thought about this alot and my way out would be to slip away quietly , drive into the kruger park , find a quiet dirt road dumped the car , walk into the veldt take some sleeping tablets and fall asleep under a tree and hopefully be taken in my sleep by a lion or hyena .Quick, painless and at least nature has found a use for my body to feed another living creature.

peace be with you and yours in what ever choice you make

 

there are plenty of ways to get yourself martyred if that's what you want. although its only after they're dead that anyone is considered heroic for doing so. not always even then. myself i'd prefer to die by myself in a little cabin out in the woods somewhere, but i also realize how unlikely that is to happen. right now the only thing my own life is threatened by is just continuing to get older. which like any more immediately terminal condition, is not something any of us can do very much about. i'm in no hurry to get myself dead though. as long as my brain hasn't completely turned to mush, i want to still be able to enjoy seeing all the strange and wonderful, or not so wonderful as the case might be, changes that will continue to be taking place.

my dad made it to just barely seventy, my mom made it to ninety one. if i can at least split the difference, that gives me another fifteen good years to look forward to. i hope.

that's not as long as i'd like. i'd like to have another thirty or even another sixty. i'll just have to take what i get though. just like anybody else.

 

You can think what you want. But my remark isn't flippant. I've given it years of thought. Down to the fact that I actually know where she's currently living - something a lot of people lost track of a long time ago.

If you didn't live in a certain place, during a certain era then you just won't get it. If you don't know me or my friends, then you don't know what we went through. It's personal. Fuck you for being an assumptive dick about it.

 

I also have thought about what I would do if I get the news that I'm not long for this planet to much longer-

Its a really personal deal- I agree that making peace with loved ones and people who you feel you need too.
Trying not to be depressed and regretful would be a hurdle for myself- - I wish you peace before you enter whatever comes next*

withrespect
jjack

 

Organ doner here. It's like a part of you is living on some how.

I haven't put much thought into how I want to die. But bit's about what I'd like the whole passing away/ prospect of the afterlife etc to be like, yeah.

 

For myself I can't imagine how my death is going to make much of an impact save for those most important to me and even there who knows. Therefore like some others have said I'd love to find a place that had meaning to me and simply become part of it. I'm planning another trip to the Amazon Basin this summer and while I don't have any reason to think it's my last trip It would be fine if it is. I'd be happy to become part of the organic fodder that endlessly produces yet other forms of life.

 

Death is completely pointless. Just organisms that inevitably stop.


Might as well spend some time living it up. I agree that giving away your organs would be a good thing.

 

If the organs are viable, yes. Whatever the case there, living it up while you're still alive- as much as possible- is a good way of making death a little less scary for the people around you and enables them to celebrate your life while you're still around.

There are things I'd consider trying if I were aware of my impending demise but the cultural lack of humor on the subject prevents it unfortunately... a mock funeral where I lay out and instead of delivering eulogies my friends and family deliver roasts so all can have a few good laughs as a group while it's still possible but the underlying message being death doesn't have to be a scary and dreadful thing. After all, it awaits every last one of us.

 

Interesting topic perhaps the most useful death in history was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

It set off WWI (15 million dead) the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 which gave rise to Lenin and Stalin (body count 17 million dead) and so deeply upset a lowly German corporal named Adolf Hitler that he dedicated his life to prove German superiority by starting WWII (60 Million Dead) not including the 12 million civilians and Jews killed during the holocaust.

Hotwater

 

i feel like he was mostly talking to me, since he specifically referenced my post, and mine was the only post with a "dislike." odd, since i actually answered the exact question he asked and then pretended he didn't ask, and also responded to the portion of his post where he brought up making the death itself interesting.