How do you determine the point at which life is no longer worth living?

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Clarification of Question by roscojones-ga on 13 Oct 2004 08:47 PDT

I see that my question has comments from a variety of perspectives &
will require some clarification. The examples below will give a
framework that my question fits in.

#1 When my daughters & I made the decision to have my wife's life
support turned off, the decision was clear & met with her
instructions. Her health prior to the final ICU visit was very bad.
She had expressed the desire for it to end. She once had an extended
"near death" experience while in a coma previously. She had memories
of experiencing the afterlife & choosing to come back to the physical
& out of her coma. She later told me that it had been a mistake to
come back & wanted to return. Being Catholic, she would not take her
own life. She had asked me more than once to help her end it. In the
end, her drinking led to many of her systems just shutting down.
"Living" would be as a brain dead husk that could not survive without
life support. So, turning off LS was an easy choice.

#2 My brother took his own life while in a mental hospital. He had
suffered from severe mental disorder for years. Eventually he had
become a danger to my mother & could no longer stay with her. Faced
with the prospect of living in halfway houses & no chance at a
"normal" life, he lost hope & gave up.

#3 His death affected my mother greatly. Somehow she felt responsible
because she had filed the paperwork to prevent him from coming home.
She died in her sleep 2 months later. Was this death due to a broken
heart?

From these examples it appears that, at some point, a line was
crossed. Things occurred that made "not living" preferable to
"living". Just being able to physically survive is not enough. Life
needs hopes, dreams, goals, family & friends & other things that
maintain a sense of purpose & quality of life.

Life can put you in hopeless situations, that do not have good
answers. You ask yourself, "Why am I here?" & can't think of a good
answer. My origonal question was:
"How do you determine the point at which life is no longer worth living?" 

To "Clarify", I'd like to change this to:
"What are the things that DO make & are necessary for having a life worth living?"

So, the question, instead of looking for a reason to leave, is now
looking for the reasons to stay.

There is no such point. Life is a privilege and a duty. We must
maintain our mortal existence as long as we can, through thick and
through thin, no matter how difficult it may seem. To abandon it is to
fail a test, the most important test of all. The consequences of
choosing death are far worse than any suffering that life has to
offer.

leapinglizard

My perspective here...

I have always told my family if ever I was incapacitated, just shoot me...

I have always believed that when we put our pets down, I would like to
go that way that as well...

My 2 cents

Steph53

Just to add:
http://www.euthanasia.com/page4.html

Many of us know from recent first-hand experience that life is worth
living all the way up to the end, and greatly appreciated well beyond
that.

tutuzdad-ga

Rosco,

When the pain of staying exceeds the pain of leaving.

Phil

Many times in our life, we feel that we have reached a point at which
life does not seem to be worth living..at these times, we feel so
dejected that nothing seems good and worthwhile..and some of us even
decide to end our lives to put an end to it for once and all..i think
this to happen is very unfortunate bcoz we may end our life not
thinking what future had in store for us. Life is full of surprises
and one never knows how things may shape up, sometimes miracles happen
by themselves, sometimes we need to make them happen. Take your pick.