This may not be the right place for this discussion - please correct me, if not.
Have there been conversations here about considering assisted suicide or death with dignity for oneself?
I know so many families who are in the throes of struggling with an elder family member who is for all intents and purposes intellectually dead - doesn't know who or where they are, doesn't rrecognize family members, etc., but is being kept physically alive, because that's what we do in our society. Some are institutionalized. Some are home. All are involving a large amount of money to keep them going. No quality of life . I don't want this for my family. I don't know where it comes from in me
Fortunately I live in a death with dignity state. Any thoughts on this, practical ideas?
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I haven't been able to come up with a better plan, as of yet, anyway.
The first germ of an idea came when I watched my grandfather dying in a hospital some 30+ years ago. He was 101 years old and it was just his time to go. His body was completely worn out. He was slowly dying in his hospital bed, fighting - and I mean fighting - for each breath he took. This went on for days, and right there I decided I wasn't going to die like that. It was so hard on him, but it was more hard on the family, to go there each day and watch that horrible spectacle.
They were very, very religious. I'm not. I'm not worried about committing a "mortal sin" or offending some angry sky daddy. As long as a person is of sound mind, and can initiate the act of suicide themselves, an individual should have the choice of how they want to end their life.
It's a shame that most people in this country are tethered to religious dogma, and they refuse to even explore different, more humane methods of ending people's suffering.
I'm in no hurry to go, believe me, but when my time comes I plan - as Frank Sinatra said - to do it "my waaaaay". 
A phone call to 911 about a suicidal man will have the police there in minutes. It will not be a member of my family who finds my carcass. But thanks for playing. 
Thinking about this sociologically, anthropologically...as in - how have we strayed from evolution's "plan"... I think humans evolved to remain living in groups intergenerationally, where the younger take care of the older. This would include, I presume, not necessarily having all modern technology at our fingertips to extend physical life, despite intellectual / mental decline. And so be it (in my opinion).
It also means there are not the concerns of today - where do we put mom; is this a good and safe environment; can we afford it...not that ALL issues are resolved, but there would be a basic plan or template.
I don't know...I am probably idealizing how things were 100+ years back. I know there were elders who starved and suffered alone - thus Social Security and Medicare in US, for example.
I just wonder about the tradeoffs of modern society when it comes to how we care for our very young and very old. So often, we have to turn to institutions, rather than the extended family model. Not optimal, in my opinion. Though I guess it's good to have options.
one of the ten commandments "honor they mother and father" was written because the nomadic people in the middle east would abandon the aged to die when they could no longer keep up and contribute. 
It would stand to reason that someone of advanced years wrote that commandment, at the very least. 