‘last flight home’ director on becoming an “death with Dignity” activist after father’s final moments
Everyone who loved my father understood his reasons to be done with this life on earth. He had been paralyzed for 40 years because of a stroke resulting from his neck being manipulated in a massage when he was only 53 years old. By 2021, he was 92 — weak, frail, battling terminal chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and falling a lot. He was tired of the fight. He would do anything for us, so how could we deny him his wish?
We found there was a law in California that would allow our father to take his own life with the help of medication after a 15-day waiting period, so we brought him home from the hospital to die on his own terms.