A former editor of the British Medical Journal has claimed cancer is the best way to die.
Richard Smith who is Chairman of the Board of Directors of medical smartphone app Patients Know Best believes the opportunity to reflect on life before it ends is important.
In an article published in the BMJ the 62 yr. old wrote that while most people tell him they would prefer a sudden death, he thinks that is very hard on the families of the deceased.
He went on "The long slow death from dementia may be the most awful as you are slowly erased, but then again when death comes it might be just a light kiss."
"Death from organ failure....respiratory, cardiac or kidney....will have you far too much in hospital and in the hands of doctors."
"So death from cancer is the best....You can say goodbye, reflect on your life, leave last messages, perhaps visit special places for the last time, listen to favourite pieces of music, read love poems and prepare according to your beliefs, to meet your maker or enjoy eternal oblivion".
" This is, I recognise, a romantic view of dying but it is achievable with love morphine and whisky. Stay away from over ambitious oncologists, and lets stop wasting billions trying to cure cancer, potentially leaving us to die a much more horrible death."

Any thoughts?

Yes, I would think that dying peacefully in one's sleep might be a superior way to kick the bucket.

Yes! I go with that! My good friend, only 42.Came home from late shift,asked wife for cup of tea.
Came back with the tea, He passed away! Good way to die but age 42?.........Miss him always

His comments are deliberately provocative and they are the result of his own personal experience and observation. The more one thinks about what he said, the more one can see the sense of what he is saying. He has caused others to step back, reappraise their outlook on life and death, and not think as the herd does. He is asserting that death is inevitable and our attempts at staying alive are futile. Certainly, I would rather die of cancer than die from, say, Alzheimer's Disease or Motor Neurone Disease as two friends have during the last few months.

He is not being frivolous and certainly not advocating a "cancer for all" policy but is saying that sometimes it is preferable to other illnesses and, in saying this, he is correct. Sadly, just before Christmas, a work colleague of my wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She is only 42 and has two children. His expressed words sound unkind in isolation especially having regard to my wife's friend predicament. He is a learned man and I'm sure he did not wish to upset people. New Technology has meant that this man's words are available to all. Fifty years ago his remarks would have been received by a select and educated few. Now, every muppet in the world can see them and misconstrue them according to his own whim at any given moment.

I'm not sure what the stats say on the success of pain management for people with terminal cancer. I understand some of the deaths are still awful. I wouldn't want to die of cancer if I was living a third world standard of living.

GT93 wrote:I'm not sure what the stats say on the success of pain management for people with terminal cancer. I understand some of the deaths are still awful. I wouldn't want to die of cancer if I was living a third world standard of living.

Well said GT I think I would find death by cancer acceptable if pain was minimised and I would have thought in the first world we have the medication to do just that.

As a two time survivor of cancer it does have that aspect of looking at our lives. My prayer to my creator was that I had given him some joy with this life, since that time fear of death has been gone. At this point in time I understand that this entity, Russ, is only one of many different incarnations as I, and you, are eternal beings. This is why folks my age must meditate, to put this brief life into perspective and not waste the precious gift of this life. Sadly less than ten percent reach this point of understanding. As far as if the pain is a lot my brother in law was on a constant morphine drip at the end of his life.

Cancer is my worst fear. I have seen friends die horrible deaths from the disease and wouldn't wish it on anyone. If I had my choice, which none of us do, I'd like to die in my sleep quickly and totally painlessly.

I have seen a number of close friends die from cancer and there was nothing pretty about it.

The treatment is usually painful and debilitating, and undignified, think colostomy bag. Pain management in itself can be debilitating.

In the end they probably did not die of cancer as such, pneumonia usually gets them, or organ failure, like liver failure, leaving them withered and yellow.

And many other infections due to reduced immune system from chemotherapy.

My brother has cancer (50) and finds the treatment unbearable, currently on an experimental drug. He says he has doubts about further treatment, and would prefer another 6 months "happy" versus 5 years being miserable. The new drug seems to work without too many side effects (breathlessness), his prior treatment was continuous diahrea and vomiting.

10 months ago my Dad died from a burst aneurysm of the aorta. It was painless and quick. Not a bad way to go.