| There have been studies using psychedelic drugs such as: lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), dipropyltryptamine (DPT), and methylenedioxymethylamphetamine [Ecstasy] to treat sever depression in the terminally ill. The results were positive but since the categorization of them as drugs of abuse in 1970, except with special permission in 1990 to use [Ecstasy] in studies, it is illegal to use any hallucinogenic drugs in any studies in America (Sewick). As with any topic in life, everyone has his or her own opinion. Some people are willing to take prescriptions such as Prozac, Zoloft and Wellbutrin to help with depression, while others do not want to depend on medication no matter what. Unfortunately some terminal patients do not know how to handle the depression and will try suicide. � What is the use of spending the last six months or years of your life in a situation that is only going to deteriorate and be awful for you and for everybody around you?� asks Ricky Kurz (Terwillinger 9D). Not all terminally ill feel the same. When asked about her thoughts on suicide. K.D. commented. � I had two friends who had hepatitis-C that committed suicide, one in February of this year, but I would never consider it an option. I want to live.� �Only patients who have been able to work through their anguish and anxieties are able to achieve [acceptance and peace]� (K�bler-Ross 78). Acceptance might mean to allow the natural process of life and death to occur (Kramer 162). It is not just lying down to wait for death, but the acknowledgement of mortality. Kay Kramer states, �The worst pain is not of the body, but of the mind [�] the fear of abandonment, the pain of loss [�]�(39). When discussing death, a lot of people will change the subject. The terminally ill are forced to face mortality daily. Karla has trouble making plans because the doctors told her she had three to five years to live, three years ago. Now she wonders which day will be her last. Had no one told her she was dying, K.D. wouldn�t be worried about it. She would be living her life more relaxed and without the stress of a time limit. Is it so hard to face our mortality that we would rather deny it? Will we wait until it is upon us, before we face and prepare for it? I have always tried to be realistic about my impending death. I have talked to my family about my wishes and have made plans for my children, in case my time is up before they are raised. Yet, I still wonder if I were to be told tomorrow that I had a limited time left, would I also follow the stages or would I be able to come to terms with my illness and still enjoy the time I had left? |
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