Question:
Discuss about one woman’s fight to die her own way?
Answer:
Andrea (N’Drea) was a member of the group of social reformers or rebels named Os Cangaceiros. They refused the work slavery and attacked the prison system in France by stealing the plans of recently built prisons and spreading them among the mass (Os Editores). Andrea learned in 1985 that she had cancer. She had to undergo surgery, radiation treatment and chemotherapy. But, finally when it came to sign papers for consenting to be a guinea pig for experimental drugs for treating cancer, she walked out of it and chose to live and die her own way. This book by her demonstrates the decisions taken by her with joy, anger and intelligence. Her work powerfully condemns the medical industry along with being an ardent conceptual scrutiny of the commodity society. It also explains the social, emotional, physical and intellectual destruction of human beings and also the idiosyncratic articulation of a woman’s decision and desire to live and die according to her wishes among her near and dear ones, defying the society which is keen on slithering the lives as well as deaths of people away (Shotter).
In her letter to the nurses, she castigated them for asking a sign of hers on papers which would mean that she would be treated with new experimental drugs and the hospital and the drug company would not take any responsibilities if anything happens to her. She says that it is her life; she is consenting to be a guinea pig and yet she has to pay for the costs of the new drug. She implies that when people become powerless and are on the verge of dying, they grab on to anything that they can get to extend their lifespan. This powerlessness is the root cause that the cynicism of pharmaceutical labs gets unnoticed. The helplessness of people is being taken advantage of by the medical industry. The hospital staffs convince the patients into getting tested for new drugs by feeding them illusions of life. Andrea was way too strong to escape this illusion (Cheng, Ottati and Price). She chastises the nurses due to their lack of morality. Andrea says that nurses could have helped the patients to choose their own way of life and death by protesting against the horrendous and inhuman treatments of the patients by the biochemists, hospitals, researchers etc. She has implied that the medical industry is just another money minting industry like most (Başoğlu).
In her letter to Bella, she explains that she has chosen her freedom to live and die on her own terms. She knows that she is going to die soon but nonetheless, she is determined to have the last word in matters of her life and death (Abrams and Elizabeth). She also sarcastically demonstrates the treachery of other people who cash money from the poor plight of others (Hamel). After refusing any other medications and treatments for cancer, she felt that she bought back her life even if that means she is going to die sooner than later.
References
Abrams, Grant, and Patricia Elizabeth. Caregiver Revolution. Chicago: Gateways Books & Tapes, 2011. Print.
BaÅŸoÄŸlu, Metin. “A Multivariate Contextual Analysis Of Torture And Cruel, Inhuman, And Degrading Treatments: Implications For An Evidence-Based Definition Of Torture.”. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 79.2 (2009): 135-145. Web.
Cheng, Justin S., Victor C. Ottati, and Erika D. Price. “The Arousal Model Of Moral Condemnation”. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 49.6 (2013): 1012-1018. Web.
Hamel, Louis H. “Treachery By Gift”. Int. J. Appl. Psychoanal. Studies 11.3 (2014): 269-273. Web.
Os Editores, Os Editores. “Editorial”. Comun. Educ. 18.1 (2013): 3. Web.
Shotter, J. “Worldly Beings Becoming Human Beings: Differentiations And Articulations Within Our Different Ways Of Being”. Culture & Psychology 21.2 (2015): 231-242. Web.
