ANGRY

Humans and their arrogance anger me sometimes. We make judgements about others' situations when we ourselves have not been it their situation. What am I talking about? The case of Chantal Sébire of course. (Here is an article in English too if you don't speak French). What gives people the right to say to someone who is terminally ill, blind, with no sense of taste or smell, in agony and facing a worse day every day that they should grit their teeth and bear it? We don't treat animals this badly.
When my own Gran died in her 60s of a brain tumour her very last words to me were ' I wish I was a rabbit' - The tumour had confused her so I had slowly become used to her talking nonsense over the preceding 6 months, she was a week from death, lying in a hammock because bed sores meant she could no longer even lie on a bed. But she wasn't confused that day - she was scarily lucid - she elaborated: 'then I could choose when to run into a trap'. I was just 16 years old and it frightened me that she had chosen me to confide in. It seems to me that when we get to that stage, often dignity is much more important to us than staying alive a few extra unbearable days.
I, for one, salute Chantal's courage and her decision to kill herself despite Monday's legal fiasco and feel only shame that we make people go to these lengths.