Dysthanasia
Dysthanasia is the opposite of Euthanasia and means 'bad death'. It often occurs in modern medicine when a terminally ill person is kept alive beyond their natural period thus prolonging their suffering.
When a person is terminally ill, and the individual or family have no desire or ability to continue with prolonging the suffering, the law in some countries permit the removal of life support systems to allow the person to die with dignity. This is called Euthanasia which in Greek means 'good death'.
From the hospital's point of view, euthanasia is bad for business, because the billing stops. A dead person requires no medicines, no further treatment, just a foul smelling inconvenient body which occupies valuable real estate.
Nowadays there is a dramatic rise in a phenomenon called 'Dysthanasia' meaning 'Bad death' which is the opposite of euthanasia. Here the patient is kept alive by all means possible thus prolonging the suffering of the patient.
Several technologies such as artificial ventilation can prolong the dying process for extended time.
While there are laws prohibiting euthanasia, dysthanasia is rampant and unchecked.
Offspring or relatives who have not found the time to care for the dying now want to show how much they care, so they throw money in a futile effort to keep the patient alive and assuage their own guilty conscience. They fail to realise that they are increasing the suffering of the terminally ill person. Sometimes the organs are harvested illegally.
The people who probably suffer the most are people who have hidden great wealth in their lifetimes, such as criminals, corrupt politicians and officials, etc.
Behind great hospitals and edifices, guarded by police and security personnel, their wretched bodies are dismembered, eyes gouged out and fingers amputated as they begin their dance with death.
The very biometric locks they have used in their lifetime to safeguard their ill-gotten wealth becomes their dysthanasia, as inheritors legal or otherwise scramble to open safety vaults, and operate secret bank accounts, and to get thumb impressions on legal documents to transfer the wealth of the critically ill, ensuring their certain but painful death.
By all religious standards we are all sinners, so naturally most people are scared of going hell. Fear of death is a natural outcome of our social and religious conditioning.
Research shows that most people have little or no regrets about what they have said or done, but regret greatly the things they should have said or done. Many regret merely existing rather than living meaningful lives. So they struggle to live just a little bit longer.
A person who has lived fully, is prepared to die at any time.
~ Mark Twain
As for me, I am always exploring, loving, playing, working, sharing and laughing and occasionally crying. I try to live fully so that when the time comes to die, even death should feel ashamed of coming for me. ***
Gurvinder Singh
May 2018
