Sherwin B. Nuland Quotes

Death deserves dignity.

I have not seen much dignity in the process by which we die. The quest to achieve true dignity fails when our bodies fail.

If I ever went, I'd want to go peacefully in my sleep. I wouldn't want to plan my own death.

It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share. It is time to go.

I'm trying to knock the medical profession into accepting its responsibilities, and those responsibilities include assisting their patients with death.

I work with a group called Compassion & Choices in California. It's attempting to get death with dignity legalised in California, the idea being that so goes California, so goes the rest of the U.S., at least.

Both individual fulfillment and the ecological balance of life on this planet are best served by dying when our inherent biology decrees that we do.

It's not morbid to talk about death. Most people don't worry about death, they worry about a bad death.

It seems sensible to me that we should look to the medical profession, that over the centuries has helped us to live longer and healthier lives, to help us die peacefully among our loved ones in our own home without a long stay in God's waiting room.

There can be no stronger claim to a physician's assistance than at the time when death is imminent, a moral judgment implied by the state's own recognition of the legitimacy of medical procedures necessarily hastening the moment of impending death.

I'm trying to die correctly, but it's very difficult, you know.

The final disease that nature inflicts on us will determine the atmosphere in which we take our leave of life, but our own choices should be allowed, insofar as possible, to be the decisive factor in the manner of our going.

Death is not treatment, even if it's medically facilitated.

The end of life is likely to be an important focus for innovation. Most people die in hospitals, tied up with tubes and with their bodies pumped full of drugs. Yet most would rather die at home and with more control over the timing and manner of their death.

I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.

People want the right to die at a time of their own choosing. Too many families have watched helplessly as a relative dies slowly, longing for death.

We don’t have a right to die; we have a duty to die.

Wait for them to die

I would like to avoid dying if possible. I do like living! The worst, I think for me, though, would be a really bedridden death.

I've always said when age or infirmity gets the better of me, I'm off to whichever civilised country lets the elderly die with dignity.

I hope that when the time comes, I am treated with compassion and allowed to pass on to the next phase of life's journey in the manner of my choice.

I have not often seen much dignity in the process by which we die.

The belief in the probability of death with dignity is our, and society’s, attempt to deal with the reality of what is all too frequently a series of destructive events that involve by their very nature the disintegration of the dying person’s humanity. I have not often seen much dignity in the process by which we die.

Would you require a wretched being, whose life is slowly wasting under a lingering disease, to despatch himself at once by the stroke of a dagger? Does not the very disorder which consumes his strength deprive him of the courage to effect his deliverance?

Many, if not most, Americans can imagine a fate worse than death, and it is a seemingly interminable process of dying. For them, it is frightening that politicians can find ways to interject themselves into this sad process.