Seems to me a discount is warranted, if not a refund.

So much for death with dignity, huh?

BioEdge: Alexina Wattiez wasn’t supposed to die like this. The 36-year-old Belgian woman was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2021. She deteriorated rapidly and was in so much pain that she asked for euthanasia.

On March 29 last year, her doctor, the two nurses who were looking after her, her partner, Christophe Stulens, and their 15-year-old daughter gathered in anticipation of a peaceful death. Stulens and the daughter were waiting outside while the doctor administered the lethal injection.

The facts are still obscure, but this much is known. Alexina’s partner and daughter heard her screaming. When they entered the room, she was dead, but it appears that the two nurses had smothered her with a pillow. The lethal dose had not been sufficient to kill her.

It appears that neither the nurses nor the doctor reported the failed euthanasia. But two days before the funeral, someone informed the public prosecutor’s office. A forensic pathologist examined the body and noticed traces of suffocation on the victim’s face.

Her family has demanded an investigation. “Could you imagine that your mother or your wife could end up suffocated by a cushion as part of her end of life? I think no one can conceive and imagine that,” says their lawyer, Maître Renaud Molders-Pierre.

Let’s be clear, there is no death with dignity when you’re literally hiring people to kill you. As difficult as it is each stage of life has something to teach us as well as those around you.

We come into this world helpless and depend on loved ones to survive. Then we become strong and hopefully take care of others around us. But when it’s our time to need help we should allow others to take care of us. It’s hard to allow others to help you but that’s part of it. It teaches us humility and allows others to serve.

I never understood this whole idea that old people must and should aspire to live independently. None of us were made to live independently. We are called to love one another. We are called to serve. And sometimes, as hard as it is, we are called to be served by loved ones.

Suicide is a quick way out. Too many people think of it as a loving solution. It’s the opposite of that. It’s selfish. People consider themselves no good to anyone anymore so they should just die. But that ignores the fact that life is a gift from God.

I’ve heard from people that taking care of their elderly parent was the hardest thing they ever did. They’ve also said that in some ways it drew them so much closer to their parent and changed them for the better.

Hiring people to kill you is not death with dignity. Life is hard. It’s supposed to be. Carry your cross. Uphill. Endure the lashes. Old people shouldn’t just teach the young how to live but how to die.