Death Is No Longer a Personal Event
（時として、人が生きそして進んで死を選ぶことが、社会や家族に投げかけるもの・・・）By 丘 ひろみ（ペンネーム）
August 7, 1990
最近、京都で医師が難病の女性に関与した嘱託自殺幇助？殺人？が取り上げられています。 この件は別としても自分自身もこの先の健康状態にもより、終末期をどう受け止めるのかも含め考えさせられ、難しい問題です。
私は約30年前のＮＹ留学時、英語クラスのプロジェクトとして、当時アメリカで起こった“死ぬ権利”にからむ事件を取り上げました。 興味のある方は一読していただければ（以下、英文がその際の授業で提出した本文の一部です）。
On June 6, 1990, the New York Times wrote, “Doctor tells of first death using his suicide device.” Janet Adkins, a 54 years old English teacher, had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and committed suicide by using Dr. Kevorkian’s homemade device. Her suicide made the public question whether chronically sick people have the right to end their lives by their own means. Her suicide also made the right to die become stronger. Her affair implied how difficult it is for such sick people to continue to live, depending on their families. Janet Adkins showed “when and how they (such sick people) will die and whether a doctor should play a role in such an act” (Johnson 40). By considering lessening a specific family’s burden, the right to die, which includes assisting suicide and stopping nutrients for vegetative people, will become much more practical than before. Janet’s suicide was a good example that death is not always a personal event any longer.
（1990年当時、アメリカで医師が自ら作成した自殺デバイスで、ジャネット、54歳が自らの意思で死を選びました。彼女はアルツハイマーを患っていましたが、まだ深刻な状況ではありませんでした。 彼女の住まいの一角にあった中古車の中で、その装置のスイッチは自らが押したとされている、装置も試験管立てにも似た簡易なものと写真を記憶しています）。
Janet died, but her suicide has readdressed the conflict of whether an ethical issue involves people in asserting the right to die, by considering lessening their family’s burden. Janet Adkins had suffered with Alzheimer’s disease for four years; she had trouble reading and working with numbers. However, her friend, Joyce said, “She was so vital and active”; she enjoyed hang gliding, mountain climbing, and traveled to many places, such as Hong Kong, Spain, and Hawaii (Johnson 42). When her family went to Dr. Kenneth Erickson, a psychiatrist, the family was told how Alzheimer’s disease progresses. It was likely that her disease would involve the family in dressing her and taking her to the bathroom. Then Janet said, “I don’t think that needed to be said (by the doctor)” (Johnson 42). With these concerns, Janet approached Dr. Kevorkian, who created his homemade intravenous device for euthanasia. On June 4, 1990, she pushed the button, which inserted Thiopenta Sodium to stop her heart. Before she went on this long journey, her husband, children, and friends wept and embraced her. However, this did not mean that they opposed her decision. Janet’s close friend, Peggy, said, “It seems bizarre, but I admired her courage” (Johnson 42). Probably, it represented Janet’s family’s feelings too.
（ジャネットはアルツハイマーを患い4年であったが、以前は行動的でハングライディング、登山を楽しみまた旅行は香港、スペイン、ハワイへと。 しかし発病後、ドクターからこの病気は進行性で、将来は着替えや、入浴に家族の負担が増すことを告げられたが、ジャネットはその事実を受け入れ難かったようです）。
Janet’s symptoms were not so serious; however, her friend said, “She (Janet) wanted to make the decision (suicide) while capable” (Johnson 42). Janet’s case was different from conventional euthanasia in which patients suffer with great pain and accept assisting suicide likely at hospitals. She was neither in a coma nor hospitalized, but she voluntarily chose euthanasia. Her Alzheimer’s disease would not affect her life expectancy, and until it progressed she could dress herself and go to the bathroom. According to the book, Human Life & Medical Practice, by J.K. Mason euthanasia is classified in tis several types. For instance, “Involuntary euthanasia excludes the patient from decision-making”; the relatives and doctors assess the patient’s condition and decide whether to stop his life (Mason 22). Active involuntary euthanasia ends the life of a patient who does not show any desire or wish to die; the patient is in coma, and his family and doctor agree to take away the artificial feeding tube and to let him die. Voluntary active euthanasia means that a patient accepts suicide with his belief in the wisdom of this act, and doctors may assist his suicide in a medical setting. However, those patients are likely to be in a vegetative state, or they can not swallow. Their life expectancy can also be short. Janet Adkins’ case was none of these; therefore, her euthanasia was highlighted. It was unusual that an Alzheimer’s disease’s patient deliberately committed suicide by euthanasia before the disease’s progress would become serious.
（ジャネットの病気は死の選択をせずとも更に数十年の余命が見込まれていました、また通常のアルツハイマー型認知症の患者と違い,当時は植物人間状態でもなく、咀嚼も可能であるにもかかわらず、ジャネットはそれらを良しとせず、体や判断能力が機能するうちに、進んで尊厳死を受け入れようと）。
Janet looked for the way to die, “including jumping out the window” (Johnson 42). If she had jumped out the window, she would simply have been one person of “30,000 adult Americans” who commit suicide every year (Johnson 40). Coincidentally, the curious story in Newsweek attracted Janet; Dr. Kevorkian’s attempt to advertise his homemade suicide machine in a medical journal was rejected (Johnson 43). After this, Janet and the doctor became companions in carrying out her suicide project which could raise a new sociological issue in the mass media. Her suicide has created the dilemma “when and how chronically sick people will die,” and whether doctors have the right to participate in such an affair (Johnson 40). What’s more, do societies need another preferential suicide by euthanasia rather than by gun or jumping out the window? Probably, these ideas affect not only chronically sick people but also those who are dependent on others for every aspect-dressing, feeding, etc., for example-of their survival.
Janet’s euthanasia will involve people who are in a vegetative state or even “in the long-term care needs of the elderly” (Johnson 510).
（もちろんジャネットも窓から飛び降りる事も考えたが、偶然にもDr. Kevorkianの手製の自殺デバイスの宣伝広告を“Newsweek”が拒否した記事が広く知られることとなり、ジャネットもこのニュースを目にし、後に当事者二人は接近。結果、Dr.は以降130人の尊厳死にかかわったとされ、長く不治の病と闘う多くの人々に、飛び降り自殺でもない、ガンでもない、他の選択肢を提示する結果となりました）。
Now, it is the time to pay special attention to social changes and issues because death is not only “a natural or biological event” any longer but is now also a sociological event (Farley 519). People used to die much earlier from diseases or accidents than now. Along with improving medical systems and life-standards, woman’s life expectancy in the United States has risen from 65 in 1940 to 78 in 1988 (Farley 491). Also, expensive medical costs have risen even further, so specific families’’ responsibilities have increased for their chronically ill people like Janet. For instance, “Medical costs accounted for almost $1 of every $10 spent (Gross National Product) in 1980, comparing to about half that rate in1960” (Holt 431). It is common “Today, [that] death more often follows a much longer period of chronic illness” (Farley 520).
（さらに社会の医療や保険体制取り巻く環境に目を向けても、過去と比較しても人々の寿命は格段と延びています。 また医療費も高騰し病人を抱える家族等の負担も増大している。 それ故、ジャネットのようなケース（尊厳死）は特に長患いしている患者に影響を与えるのではとみられていました）。
Many sociological factors should have made Janet Adkins come to the conclusion that she should accept death. Her affair implies “when and how” chronically sick people will voluntarily die (Johnson 40). She died at 54 years of age before her Alzheimer’s disease become more serious. She committed suicide, having the doctor’s assistance. Janet chose euthanasia, and that probably lessened her fear of death and her family’s regret about letting her go. She should be the pioneer of when and how to die if people can’t live on without somebody’s help. Her act will affect “approximately 1.3 million elderly people in nursing homes or hospitals in the United States” (Farley 510). Janet has also replaced the meaning of the right to die by that of the responsibility to die. Janet’s close friend said, “She (Janet) felt it was a
gift to her family” (Johnson 42).
（近年の長寿命化、高騰する医療負担、看護される側と看護する家族関係から、ジャネットの選択つまり積極的な尊厳死。ドクターの助けを借りることにより、彼女は死への恐怖を幾ばくか軽減した可能性もあり、アメリカの介護施設や病院に取り巻く環境にも何らかのメッセージを投げかけた可能性も・・・。
最後に,ジャネットの親友は、この選択は彼女の家族への(これ以上、介護などの負担をかけないための）”
思いやり”だったとも言っています。
WORKS CITED
Belkin, Lisa. “Doctor Tells of first Death Using His Suicide Device.” The New York Times 6 June, 1990: A1.
Greenhouse, Linda. “Justices Find a Right to Die.” The New York Times 26 June, 1990: A1.
Farley, John E. Sociology. New Jersey: PrenticeHall, Inc., 1990.
Johnson, Bonnie. “A Vital Woman Chooses Death.” People 25 June, 1990: 40-43.
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, ed. Sociology. New York: CBS college Publishing, 1985.
Mason, J.K. Human Life & Medical Practice. Edinburgh (England): Edinburgh University Press, 1988.
