INTRODUCTION
I.1 Which of the following do you think are good reasons for you to avoid thinking about or planning for D&D: There is a good chance I will die in my sleep. There are or will be medical or other means to prevent my suffering so there is nothing I need to do except cooperate. There will be trustworthy professionals or capable relatives to make plans and decisions for me. I am a person who reacts with strong, long-lasting anxiety or depression, and I would predict I would do so if I continue to explore this subject I are too afraid, the subject is too distasteful, depressing or morbid. Other reasons:
I.5 If you are going to stop here: Do you think that any of the following could encourage you to continue exploring, now or in the future?
Other:
1:Your General Ideas about Leaving Life and Where They Came From
The LLQ presents a number of personality characteristics that can affect your response to leaving life. Here is one of them: 1.2 How prone are you to respond to problems or stress with: Anxiety Very ... Somewhat ... Not very ... Moodiness-Depression Very ... Somewhat ... Not very ... We know nothing (in the scientific sense of knowing) about what happens after we die. How we deal with this dilemma can affect our approach to D&D: 1.7 What do you do when you must act and you don’t have enough information to make a decision based on evidence: I rely on intuition or I listen to my feelings, I depend on God or Fate to show me the way, I rely on an authority whose advice must be taken on trust, I try to relax and let nature takes its course, I persist in looking for reliable, observable evidence on which to base my decision, I have these other beliefs that would apply in this situation :
1.8 Do you have ideas about D&D that are based on faith in God or in some other authority? For example, what does your faith say about leaving life voluntarily when you are terminally ill and suffering:
1.9 Does your faith say that suffering is ennobling or has other positive meaning? Would you be willing to suffer or to encourage others to suffer at the end of life to follow this teaching:
1.12 What impressions about D&D did you get when you were growing up from: Your family. For example, how did your parents answer your questions about what happens after we die : Your school-, Sunday-school or college teachers: Friends: TV, movies, books or other media: Funerals or other D&D rituals: Personal experience with the D&D of people or animals who were not close to you, such as: people in the neighborhood, accident scenes, heart attacks or strokes in public, visits to the hospital or doctors’ offices, other situations:
1.21 Why do you think that contemplating D&D is so difficult for people-in-general: Leaving life is often physically and emotionally painful. Leaving life means parting from those we love. Most people enjoy living and want it to continue. People don’t want to miss anything. People are afraid that the afterlife might be a terrible experience that will last forever: God may not be kind; we may end up in Hell for being bad; we may be able to see what happens on earth after we are gone. People don’t talk, think, read or otherwise come in contact with D&D enough to get used to it. The fear of death has evolved to become about the strongest instinct there is. This has happened because those with a strong life instinct tend to survive to reproduce and add more of the genes for this instinct to the gene pool. Other reasons:
1.22 What do you think keeps people like you from considering D&D as something to plan for: The instinctual fear of D&D, plus imagining physical and emotional pain, along with thinking about parting from those I love are too terrible for me think about. All kinds of experts – medical, ethical, religious, and scientific – are working on problems related to D&D. If I try to figure things out or plan without their background and training, I’ll just get frustrated and upset. Elements crucial to dealing with the problem (for example, what happens after we leave, how to deal with some kinds of physical and emotional pain, including the pain of separation) will always be missing, so what’s the point? I am the kind of person who lives in the present. I'm too busy with living! Other reasons:
2:Your Reactions When Others Leave Life
2.4 What ideas or feelings have you had when someone close to you left life:
Other thoughts or feelings:
2.7 (If you have ever been with a person who was leaving life), did you notice any of these processes or changes:
Other processes or changes:
2.11 What suggestions do you have for improvements in the treatment of the person leaving or of the person's survivors:
Other suggestions for improvements in the treatment of persons who are leaving or their survivors:
3: How You Have Been Dealing with D&D("Death and Dying")Up Until Now 3.3 Could any of the following help to reduce your anxiety (about leaving life:
Other:
3.4 Have you been able to take any of the following recommended concrete steps to plan for your exit from life:
3.5 If you have not, what has kept you from doing the above things:
3.8 Have there been times when you acted as though you wanted to leave life, but really didn’t want to or at least weren’t sure? If so, were any of the following part of the situation:
Other reasons:
4: Very Old Age 4.2 How you would feel and act if the doctor told you had six months to live? Which of these descriptions would apply to you:
Other reactions:
There are several personality traits that could affect your ability to deal with Very Old Age. Here is one: 4.3 Which of these apply to your ability to experience pleasure:
4.6 Why do you think that so many Very Old people seem to put up with a quality of life that appears to be so low -- or at least much lower than it used to be:
Other reasons:
4.9 Use this scale to describe your reaction to restrictions in the activities or abilities listed below: OK=Loss or reduction would pose little or no problem; Bad=Loss or reduction would be quite painful. ?=Not sure Abilities Having sex Having an active intellectual life Doing useful work Being involved in the arts Engaging in sports or exercise Being able to move around without help Being able to travel Being in charge or control of: My money What I do everyday My eating Bathing and going to the toilet What I wear.
4.10 If you were to wake up tomorrow and find that you were permanently bedridden, what steps would you take to make life bearable:
5: Quality of Life ("QOL") and Suffering 5.4 How much of the time do you feel good about the way things are going, because you are accomplishing things, because you are having a good time, or because you making progress towards improving your QOL:
5.6 When you look over the list (of your responses to questions about specific aspects of suffering), would you say that your overall level of suffering is:
5.7 What would other people say about your of your QOL or level of suffering? Would they wonder how you can stand it? Would they think you are doing OK or as well as anyone could expect? Would they think you were doing well compared to others like yourself? Would they think you were lucky and envy you? Would these opinions make a difference to you:
5.11 Let's say that you were in physical or psychological pain that was not going to get better. There is no hope of a cure. You have concluded that you could not adapt to the pain, and you could find no meaning in your suffering. You were not doing anyone any good by continuing to live. Would you consider leaving:
5.14 Have you ever known a person that you believed would be better off permanently asleep? Have you ever wished that the life of a person who appeared to be suffering terribly would end:
5.16 Which of these groups do you think should be offered the means to leave life:
Anyone else?
5.17 Especially if you checked “Anyone who asks”: What safeguards do you think should be put in place:
5.18 Which of the following do you think are good reasons for not offering people the opportunity to leave life voluntarily, because making this opportunity available would:
6:The Effects of Your Leaving on Others
6.1 Perhaps you don’t believe that a person’s worth to society should ever have any bearing on whether or not he leaves life. If this is so, you can indicate the reasons that you think this way, and then you can skip to the next section:
6.2 Think back over your life. What things have you done that have had an especially positive or negative impact on others:
6.5 If the earth were going to be destroyed, and there were a spaceship that could allow only a small number of the most useful people to escape, where on the list do you think you would be and why:
6.6 What do you conclude from your responses to the preceding questions:
6.10 How would those you care about respond to your leaving voluntarily:
7:Other Factors Affecting the Decision to Leave Life 7.1 What belief or image do you have of leaving life and of what might happen afterwards: |