by Geov Parrish
Geov Parrish [PHOTO LEFT] is a weekly columnist for the Seattle Weekly and for the national site, WorkingForChange. He posts regularly at Eat the State! blog. Geov is now a regular contributor to BoomanTribune.com, and looks forward to your comments so he can respond to you. His full, fascinating bio is below.
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David Postman has a fine article in today’s Seattle Times describing former Democratic governor (1985-93) Booth Gardner’s intention to head a drive for an assisted suicide, right-to-die initiative intended for the fall 2008 ballot. Gardner, 69, suffers from Parkinson’s Disease, and Gardner describes the effort as directly related to his personal circumstance. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a similar law in Oregon.
Good for Gardner. I’m a survivor of both suicide attempts (three before age 20, the first of which came at age 9) and life-threatening illness (the diabetes that began with a pancreatic infection at age 17, and the end stage renal disease diagnosed at age 31, that led to a then-experimental double organ transplant in 1994; those transplants have already far outlived original expectations). I’m far from suicidal these days; I’ve survived far too much to turn back now to the bad old days. But I’ve also lived through dozens of surgeries and an unthinkable amount of pain and dis-ease. I can easily imagine a circumstance where prolonging life would only mean more pain, and expense, for me and my loved ones.
If I get to that point, IT’S NONE OF THE GOVERNMENT’S FUCKING BUSINESS how I decide to respond. The right to privacy simply must extend to being able to make the very personal, and very important, decision as to whether to live or die. Nobody makes such decisions lightly, and I’m a damned sight more qualified to make that sort of decision about my own life than any sort of doctor, priest, or state authority.
When Gardner’s petition starts making the rounds, I’ll sign it.
Heck, maybe I’ll help circulate it.
You never know when a law like that might make the difference between death and miserable, painful, hope-less life.
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Geov Parrish has been a local and national political activist and grass roots organizer since the mid-’70s, in Oregon, Houston, Washington D.C., and, since 1990, in Seattle. He is a former broadcaster, punk rock singer, convenience store clerk, strawberry picker, and successful small business owner whose first regular political writing (other than songs and poetry) came with co-editing the national pro-feminist Activist Men’s Journal (1991-96) and co-founding the Native American community newspaper On Indian Land in 1991. In 1996, he founded, and has since continued to co-edit, the community newspaper Eat the State!.
ETS! led to an unexpected career as a political commentator, beginning with offers to write regular weekly columns in The Stranger (1997-98) and both column and feature writing in Seattle Weekly (since 1998). Since 2001 he has written from two to five columns weekly for Working Assets’ national web site, Workingforchange.com. His work has also regularly appeared in AlterNet, ZNet, Common Dreams, In These Times, Mother Jones, and on web sites and in newspapers, magazines, and anthologies across the country. Since 1996 he has also appeared each Saturday morning on Seattle’s KEXP-90.3 public affairs program Mind Over Matters, and also records short political commentaries each week which air on KBCS-91.3 and on other community radio stations around the country. He contributes regularly to the Eat the State! blog.
A lengthy, terminal illness led to an experimental (and successful) double-organ transplant in 1994. Assorted serious health complications, including a stroke, have continued. Geov lives in Seattle with his long-time partner, Gavin Greene, and the dog Kit, who actually runs the house.
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