On a brisk day at a restaurant outside Chicago, Deb Robertson sat with her teenage grandson to talk about her death.
She’ll probably miss his high school graduation. She declined the extended warranty on her car. Sometimes she wonders who will be at her funeral.
Those things don’t frighten her much. The 65-year-old didn’t cry when she learned two months ago that the cancerous tumors in her liver were spreading, portending a tormented death.
But later, she received a call. A bill moving through the Illinois Legislature to allow certain terminally ill patients to end their own lives with a doctor’s help had made progress.
Then she cried.
“Medical-aid in dying is not me choosing to die,” she says she told her 17-year-old grandson. “I am going to die. But it is my way of having a little bit more control over what it looks like in the end.”
That same conversation is happening beside hospital beds and around dinner tables across the country, as Americans who are nearing life’s end negotiate the terms with themselves, their families and, now, state lawmakers.
CONCERN TROLL DETECTED!
The universally agreed age is 18 at the youngest for the thing you call “Gender Reassignment”, typically that refers to the surgery to turn one’s “Outtie” into an “Innie”, the youngest person ever to have this operation was 16 and had to go to Germany to accomplish it.
Personally seen 10 year olds having it pushed on them by the parents? First off, anecdotal evidence, second, this situation has never been confirmed to exist outside of one of those scam e-mails they send to old people… These “Wacky liberals forcing their kids to wear panties!” are a right wing boogeyman… judging on how you say Kilometers instead of Miles I’m guessing you’re from the UK, a lot of anti-trans propaganda there
The only medical transition options for a child are medications to delay puberty, which are of course, reversible.
We use miles in the UK.
Let me clarify the reassignment statement: I’ve seen a ten year old girl who always was the girliest girl in class over the period of a month suddenly do a 180, then claim that as of now she’s a boy. She did not transition yet, but as told, will be receiving puberty blockers.
On your point 3: I’ve found a lot of studies in support AND a lot of studies that do not support it. British NHS quite recently stopped prescribing those blockers as there is not enough evidence that they are safe or effective. I’d say the “of course” in your phrasing is not warranted.
On the "concern troll " nonsense, just because you read something you disagree with doesn’t mean the other person is trying to troll anyone. You’d get a lot more out of discussions if you wouldn’t start screeching right away