EXPLORING
THE RIGHT-TO-DIE
Facebook Seminar
SYNOPSIS:
Since
we cannot avoid death,
what can we do to improve the
process of our dying?
This is a world-wide electronic discussion group
for people who favor making
meaningful choices at the end of life
—both
for ourselves and for those whose deaths we will attend.
How will we choose the best pathways towards death?
When we embrace our 'right-to-die',
how do we avoid irrational suicide and other forms of premature death?
What changes in law and medical practice
might be needed to advance the right-to-die?
OUTLINE:
1. A VIRTUAL SEMINAR—NOT
LIMITED BY TIME AND SPACE
A.
ANY PLACE
B. ANY TIME
2. HOW THIS ELECTRONIC DISCUSSION GROUP IS STRUCTURED
3. JOIN THE FACEBOOK GROUP CALLED "The Right To Die"
4. THEMES FOR DISCUSSION
5.
CONNECTIONS WITH FACE-TO-FACE LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS
6.
PROGRAM
CONTENT FOR SMALL LOCAL GROUPS
1. A VIRTUAL SEMINAR—NOT
LIMITED BY TIME AND SPACE
A. ANY
PLACE:
Anyone with Internet access can join this Facebook
Seminar.
Our discussions take place in
a Facebook Group called "The Right To Die",
which had 1,100 members in April 2015
more than 3,000 members in December 2015,
& more than 4,000 members in August 2016.
People
from everywhere in the world can participate
without moving their bodies anywhere.
The self-chosen members of this virtual seminar
participate from wherever they have Internet access
—from
their computers at home, at work,
in an Internet cafe, or library.
Mobile devices even allows participation from wherever
participants have wireless access to the Internet.
B. ANY TIME:
ANY TIME DURING THE DAY OR NIGHT
And there is no need for us to be on-line at the
same time.
Because participants live all around the planet Earth,
some of us will be sleeping while others are reading and writing.
ANY TIME DURING THE WEEK
A
new discussion-starter is published each week.
Each right-to-die issue is introduced in the
Files section.
Members can read and comment on each theme at any time.
Some new themes might be stimulated
by the other on-going discussions in this group.
ANY WEEK THEREAFTER
In fact, because each discussion remains in the
Files indefinitely,
people who join this Facebook Group after the discussions have begun
will still be able to read the discussion-starter
and all of the responses of participants up to that date.
Thus newcomers will always be able to add
their own responses, questions, or comments.
In
short, our electronic discussion group transcends time and space.
2. HOW THIS ELECTRONIC
DISCUSSION GROUP IS STRUCTURED
Each week a new discussion-starter is published as a
File.
The discussion-starters can be downloaded from the
Internet.
And some participants can even print them out
if they have printers connected to their computers.
These written presentations explore themes
similar to what is offered in face-to-face meetings
of right-to-die
organizations.
3.
JOIN THE FACEBOOK GROUP CALLED "The Right To Die".
To join this Facebook Group, you first must join
Facebook.
(If you
are already on Facebook, skip the rest of this paragraph.)
This is completely free of charge.
Go to the Facebook website:
http://www.facebook.com.
Enter your preferred e-mail address.
Create a password.
(These
can be remembered in your computer
so that your access opens automatic whenever you go to
Facebook.)
These two items (e-mail address and password)
are all you need to join Facebook.
But you can also add a picture of yourself
and lots of other things to your Facebook profile at your leisure.
Once you are registered with Facebook, search for
"The Right To Die".
Here is the direct link if you are already 'on Facebook':
https://www.facebook.com/groups/therighttodie/
Click to become a member.
4. THEMES FOR DISCUSSION
The
One-Month-less Club:
Live Well Now, Omit the Last Month .
Will
this Death
Be an "Irrational Suicide" or a "Voluntary Death"?
.
Will
This Death
Be a "Mercy-Killing" or a "Merciful Death"? .
Four
Medical
Methods of Managing Dying .
Pulling
the Plug:
A Paradigm for Life-Ending Decisions .
VDD:
Why
Giving Up
Water is Better than other Means of
Voluntary Death
Terminal
Sedation:
Dying in Your Sleep---Guaranteed .
A
New Way to
Secure the Right to Die:
Laws Against Causing Premature Death .
Two
Approaches
to Right-to-Die Laws:
Granting Permission & Banning Harms .
Fifteen
Safeguards
for Life-Ending Decisions
.
Do
I Lose the
Right-to-Die When I Lose Consciousness? .
Choosing
Your
Date of Death:
How to Achieve a Timely Death
---Not too Soon, Not too Late .
Completed
Life
or Premature Death?
One
Million
Chosen Deaths per Year?
Good
Death Hospice:
Creating
the First
Right-to-Die Hospice
Life-Ending
Decisions for Alzheimer's Patients
Taking
Death in
Stride:
Practical
Planning
Interpreting
Laws Against 'Assisting Suicide'
God
Will Decide
When Life Will End:
We Should Not 'Play God'
5.
CONNECTIONS WITH FACE-TO-FACE LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS
Even right-to-die advocates who are active members
of local groups
might like to know what others are thinking.
When we participate in this world-wide group,
we have the potential for a much wider diversity of opinion.
And less-active members of local right-to-die
organizations
often like the ease of participating in such electronic 'gatherings'.
It takes much less time and effort to read something on our computer
screens
than to move our bodies physically to the local meeting at the time
appointed.
Also electronic interaction
allows each of us to be completely selective about participation:
We will decide to become more deeply engage with some discussions.
We can skip themes that seem too
elementary or too
detailed for us.
Once we start reading a presentation, we do not need to continue.
In some cases, it will take only a few minutes
to decide that this presentation covers issues
we already know enough
about.
Or we can skip over the
introductory and elementary parts
and go directly to the new
and original ideas in any presentation or
discussion.
Many advocates of the right-to-die are isolated:
We live among people who have little or no interest in this final right.
Perhaps we live in states or countries where there are very few people
who believe in the right-to-die.
If there are local groups where we could exchange views,
these are not entirely satisfactory for us for any number of reasons.
For example, the time and place of meetings might not be convenient.
Among right-to-die organizations
that have local chapters and/or local meetings,
often less than 5% of the members attend.
At least some of these non-attenders
would be interested in the content of the programs
if there were easier ways to participate.
This world-wide electronic discussion group
allows us to focus on the larger principles of the right-to-die
without
joining any particular local group.
This electronic discussion group is open to everyone
interested,
without regard to any other affiliations they might have.
Even some people who have doubts about the so-called "right-to-die"
are welcome to join in this discussion,
as long as they can engage in rational discussion of the issues.
But the vast majority of participants favor the right-to-die.
6.
PROGRAM
CONTENT FOR SMALL LOCAL GROUPS
Particular themes already presented
on-line,
it might be adapted by a local face-to-face gathering
as a means of getting discussion of that theme started.
The presentation could be distributed in advance
either by being printed out and mailed to the members
or by being sent by e-mail to the members before the meeting.
The e-mail before the meeting could simply give the Internet location
of the discussion-starter for that meeting—the
URL.
Or the presentation could even be read aloud at the
meeting.
The total amount of time needed for such reading
would be about 15-20 minutes,
depending on the exact length of the written presentation.
This will allow most of the time of the meeting for discussion
by the people who gather for that face-to-face program.
It might be wise to pause for some discussion
at the end of each section of the presentation.
Even groups that exist for other purposes
such as medical associations, churches or humanist groups,
service clubs, women's groups, etc.
might decide to adapt some of the programs
created for this international, electronic discussion group.
How do you imagine using something from this written
discussion?
Created
April 18,2015; Revised 4-19-2015; 12-9-2015; 8-6-2016; 11-29-2016;