Beyond Life: Managing Your Right to Die | Dr. Allan Saxe | TEDxPlano

if you think I'm a little frail little old man you're right I am a frail little old man and that's why I need a chair I'm getting old by the way I don't know Facebook I don't know your face my face Instagram all that stuff that goes on I don't know what Facebook is all my students do I don't I don't know what snapchat is your chat my chat I don't do any of it but I joke to my students that even though I don't do any of that I do have a cellphone I've received one call during the year it was a wrong number and true story and I keep it just in case I don't know what the case is but I'm ready I do have a cell phone I don't know how to use it very much but I carry it I don't know where people carry those things so I don't do any of that but what I do given my age is read the obituaries isn't that a nice talk a nice thought by the way my talk is not going to be inspirational there's not going to be an applause hurrah for the right to die you know nothing like that but it's something that some states are thinking about for example the right to die is already law if you want to call it that in the state of Oregon in Washington three or four other states have variations of it a very famous Supreme Court decision called Gonzales against Oregon gave the state of Oregon the right to have people access voluntarily emphasize that voluntarily to have somebody assist them in their end of life I look at obituaries and they're not fun sometime and they scare me to death at my age because a lot of the obituaries are younger than I am and why I look at obituaries I don't know I do not have a fascination with death but I'm afraid of it I think a lot of people are fearful of it I think if we could ever conquer death so many of our social institutions would change dramatically that's for another TED talk but until we conquer death what we need to do is conquer suffering so I look at these obituaries and I read where a lot of them say you know so and so and so and so will missionary names read one this morning died after a courageous battle with fill in your own disease and there are so many out there and I keep thinking look at those courageous battles and they don't they are not taking anything away from somebody that wants to face it head-on their disease and try to conquer it but what happens if somebody says I don't want the suffering I can't take the suffering anymore I want to end my life now as painlessly voluntarily do not take anybody with me like that Pilate did in Europe a couple of weeks ago nothing like that but voluntarily somebody might say I'm had it I can't take the suffering I think they have a right to go in Europe there are three countries I think Luxembourg the Netherlands and Belgium that have the right to die assisted suicide euthanasia I've had some wonderful animals in my life as many of us have and I think back and I get very sad when I think about it but many of my pets my animals I've had them all my life they get to the point old-age terrible diseases and the veterinarian suggests this may be the time to end their life to end the suffering and I remember leaving a beautiful labradorite had the veterinarian's office and it just hurt me so much to leave it there I was there while the injection was put in and then I had to leave and I could barely walk out the door and the veterinarian's still it tried to assure me this is the best thing why do we allow a wrong phrase if if we allow our pets that are so near and dear to us to go in this way which i think really is a humane way to go why not humans why do we do this with our loving pets and not transfer that to humans the state of Texas and many other states execute people kill them I would be another TED talk capital punishment good or not yet the state kills people but did not allow us to take our own lives so many strange inconsistencies the right to die came to me very much in regard to my own personal life just recently a couple of months ago a good friend of mine in Oklahoma had emphysema I had always heard what emphysema I've heard the name didn't know it didn't know what it was it was called him and talked to him and his words were like this if he can pick it up on the microphone he said Alan I can't talk to you I can't talk to you those were the last words I heard and then he died a few days later I can't talk to you and he used to love to talk by the way the emphysema was cigarette smoking my own mother died a terrible disease died of material of kidney failure and I went to see her in the hospital in Arlington Texas many years ago and she was a brave lady young brave braver than I am 85 years old went to see her in the hospital and she said to me I I want to end this I can't take it and she was a woman that could literally take almost everything and she said I can't take this I ran to the nurse's station and said is there any pain medication you can give her there anything you can give her no the doctor didn't write a prescription for it yet she died two hours later a terrible terrible painful death why do we do this why do we make people suffer it ought to be voluntary it ought to be no compulsion no monetary inducements but if somebody wants to go if they want to leave the party so to speak let them leave hopefully with our assistance from health care professionals and this does not get a great life it enhances life there is nothing in my mind Noble about suffering if somebody wants to suffer that's their prerogative I don't want to suffer and yet giving this speech tonight this little TED talk makes me very nervous I'm very nervous and the reason why I keep thinking as I grow older what happens if I'm faced with that and even if I had the prerogative of ending my life would I do it so my talk tonight is a very personal one and frankly it makes me very very nervous to even think about it so instead I'm going to think about football and baseball and soccer and zombies zombies are good to think about I have a big I have a lot of things in my office door at the University Katz my students love to look at cats and I have all of my door these old frowning cats and they say things like zombies the one that's on my door yesterday by student says zombies eat your brains but don't worry most of you don't have any not a good statement but funny I'm sure it'll make people mad on my door but I'm saying that because I want to be fun I want to have fun in the world I don't want suffering I don't want disease but when it happens and it's all going to happen to all of us probably one way or the other I think we should have the opportunity to reach out in a civilized professional way to say I want to leave in the suffering I want to leave this is not a great inspirational topic I understand that but I think it is something that our society needs to think about as they think about it in European countries and some of our own states within the United States so thank you for letting me throw out an idea that I know is not a happy one but it's something that I think we all need at least to look at once in a while appreciate you listening to me and appreciate being part of this wonderful wonderful lecture series

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 55,837

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Life, Activism, Empathy, Ethics, Illness, Morality, Pain, Society

Id: B7ehf6CmG4Y

Length: 9min 53sec (593 seconds)

Published: Thu May 07 2015