🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤  🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤  🖤 🖤 🖤 

The day after I turned 50 this year, I received a message from my brother. He told me that my father was dying. It has happened a few times over the last few years. He had a stroke over ten years ago, and the rest of his story has been a challenging and painful downward spiral. This time, the nursing home decided to take him off food and water and give him morphine only.

It has been over a week since I received the message, and he is still alive. Can you really call it being alive? He is still breathing. On the videos I receive of him, I see how fast his chest
rises and falls, and I ask;
” What is human consciousness, and where is he on his journey? Does he understand what is happening around him? How does he experience life now? Is he in pain without water and food and unable to talk or move? Does he know he is on his way to the other side?

It makes me wonder again at how much mystery we are surrounded by. We go through life, death, and the dance between the two. What my father is experiencing also makes me think about the subject of active euthanasia, which is prohibited in Norway. We as humans have so many rules, probably with good reason, but I don’t always understand the meaning behind the laws. My family’s experience makes me think that I am personally in favor of active euthanasia. Everyone is suffering in this situation, and there is no value left in his life. It makes me think about how important it is to clarify this with those concerned before they end up in a situation where they cannot talk or express what they want. Perhaps the situation today would have been more manageable if we had asked my father when he still understood what was going on? But there are the rules, then. Would he have received active euthanasia if he had wanted it himself?