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The_jackalope

(1,660 posts)
Sat Dec 7, 2019, 02:56 PM Dec 2019

Walking the talk on overpopulation

We've all seen this exchange at some point:

"We need to reduce the world's population."
"OK, you go first."

Here's a couple who said, "All right, we will."

https://desdemonadespair.net/2019/12/together-a-maine-couple-left-the-world-provoking-a-debate-about-death-and-choice-the-pressure-of-over-population-is-bringing-about-the-destruction-of-civilization-and-will-eventua.html

They wanted to leave this world together, on their own terms, and so on 27 October 2019, Carl and Susan Chase held hands in their favorite spot at home overlooking Horseshoe Cove in Brooksville until death came.

Carl, an accomplished sailor and musician, was 77.

Susan, a renowned sculptor and art teacher, was 75.

The Chases died by suicide, but they wrote in a letter published this month along with their joint obituary in The Ellsworth American and Bangor Daily News that their decision was neither irrational nor desperate, but reasoned.

The Chases wanted their reasons known to the world, but by doing so they have provoked an intense and uncomfortable conversation about death and choice. Suicide experts also said there is real risk that their deaths could be framed as normal and could inspire others to choose suicide.

“We have enjoyed generally good health until the last few years, when it has started to become clear that the body is wearing out,” they wrote. “Where most people these days tackle every medical issue as it arises, we’ve chosen not to spend our last years in an escalating battle against our body’s failures, take more and more pills, signing up for exhausting operations, waiting for the next issue to show up.

“Dying is natural, and inescapable. We see nothing good about stretching the process out over as many years as possible.”

"The pressure of over-population is bringing about the destruction of civilization, and will eventually cause the extinction of our species as we make the planet unfit for ourselves. This process is already well underway. As a consequence truth, decency and rule of law are disappearing daily right before our eyes, leaving no system or social structure capable of managing the mess. Things are sure to get uglier and more violent as “survival of the fittest” becomes the rule. It is hard to be cheerful when confronted by the daily news. We’ve seen more than enough of it already. We have no desire to be further witness to it."

Two years ago I helped my wife have a medically assisted death. That experience cemented my desire to choose my own exit when the time comes. My reasons are the same as the Chases.
7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Walking the talk on overpopulation (Original Post) The_jackalope Dec 2019 OP
My father made this same choice Boomer Dec 2019 #1
Suicide experts? They've got to be kidding. defacto7 Dec 2019 #2
They seem to have had perfect lives Beringia Dec 2019 #3
I'm not sure what you mean? nt The_jackalope Dec 2019 #4
I don't know exactly Beringia Dec 2019 #5
Thanks. It can be hard to interpret things on the net The_jackalope Dec 2019 #6
Ya Beringia Dec 2019 #7

Boomer

(4,159 posts)
1. My father made this same choice
Sat Dec 7, 2019, 09:46 PM
Dec 2019

He was much older, in his early 90s, but he had been blessed with good health until then. He saw a slide downward up ahead and chose to spare my mother the strain and anguish of trying to care for him. I was concerned about her reaction to his death, but she felt it was an expression of his love for her. If she was okay with his suicide, then I wasn't going to judge. Fast forward 20 years and I'm more aware than ever of the issues he wrestled with. My health is worse, I won't make it to my 90s, and I'm childless (by choice). I have no intention of ending up alone in a West Virginia nursing home to eke out extra months or years of an impoverished life. Thanks to my father's example I know I have options.

defacto7

(13,485 posts)
2. Suicide experts? They've got to be kidding.
Sun Dec 8, 2019, 11:53 PM
Dec 2019

What the hell is this vague definition supposed to represent, someone crowned as the death custodian of us all? "... there is a real risk that their deaths could be framed as normal" So these so called experts are deciding that the choice of these rational and reasoned individuals is abnormal? Well, I've been wondering who this God is that people talk about all the time and now I know; it's the suicide experts. Absurd.

This is an inspiring message. Here are two people in control of their own lives who lived well and died well. I wish we could all be so in touch with reality.

Beringia

(4,314 posts)
3. They seem to have had perfect lives
Sat Dec 14, 2019, 02:35 PM
Dec 2019

and had great bounty and productivity. I think about people that are homeless or have incredibly debilitating diseases and they also might have thoughts of suicide, but never had the wonderful lives these 2 had.

Beringia

(4,314 posts)
5. I don't know exactly
Sat Dec 14, 2019, 03:29 PM
Dec 2019

It is just the free association I had when contemplating their deaths.

They chose to leave the world before they had any suffering or became a burden. Many people have this same thought, they don't want to suffer, only different circumstances.

The_jackalope

(1,660 posts)
6. Thanks. It can be hard to interpret things on the net
Sat Dec 14, 2019, 04:37 PM
Dec 2019

I didn't want to read my own assumptions into what you said.

My late wife made the decision to leave before her cancer took her. She had been a refugee, and was an amazingly creative digital artist for the last decade of her life. She was eager to leave before the suffering hit.

We all have our own ways of facing (or not facing) death. For most of us it's a very personal experience. For the couple in that article, planetary and personal death converged. An activist named Michael C. Ruppert made the same choice. I expect that more of us will follow in their footsteps as time goes on.

Beringia

(4,314 posts)
7. Ya
Sat Dec 14, 2019, 05:40 PM
Dec 2019

I do believe things will get worse as far as climate change and people fleeing areas hit the hardest by it. Probably not in my lifetime.

I think it's good your wife was able to make the decision to leave, herself and be able to carry it through.

It's a deep subject, and an individual choice, but also involves people's philosophy of life.

Edit to add, maybe I will see some of the beginnings of human extinction in my lifetime. I tend to think it will happen in another 50 years.

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