Up until a year ago, my father lived alone, and he wasn’t taking proper care of himself. His children (me and my siblings) begged him to move someplace where he could be cared for (in with one of us or to an assisted living facility), but he wanted to do his own thing.

Then he was hospitalized, and a social worker told him he’d never be allowed to live alone again. He was moved to an Assisted Living facility. He was FURIOUS about his loss of autonomy.

Since then, he has deteriorated rapidly. He has several chronic conditions. None of them will kill him, but all of them adversely affect his quality of life. As far as his ability to do things for himself, he is essentially a four-month old baby. He hates being so needy. And he’s in tremendous pain.

He found a girlfriend at the facility. She has a chronic condition that will eventually kill her, and she has chosen not to do anything to slow down the progression of her disorder.

The facility they live in went on lock-down about a month ago. No visitors allowed in. No trips to the store or non-essential doctor appointments. My dad had a cortisone shot (for pain management) scheduled for right after the lock-down started, and it was canceled. Two weeks ago, my dad told me that he was ready to die. He told me he was distraught about being trapped in his room, about not being able to see his kids/grandkids and other friends in the facility, and that he was in so much pain that he just couldn’t bear it anymore. Though, he was sneaking over to his girlfriend’s room.

Last week, his girlfriend was hospitalized. She was diagnosed with COVID-19. My dad was tested, and he has it, too. The only place it could have come from was when she went to an essential doctor appointment, about 10 days prior to her hospitalization.

Even though my dad had no symptoms, he was sent to a convalescent home, which was better equipped to deal with a haz-mat patient than his assisted living facility was. The convalescent home also has life-saving equipment on hand, such as oxygen, that the assisted living facility doesn’t have, so they could deal with him better if he developed symptoms.

My dad has had a terrible experience in the convalescent home and is anxious to get out. At this point, he is probably past the incubation stage and it is clear he was only an a-symptomatic carrier. But the facility refuses to test him. They said they don’t have enough tests “to waste,” so they are waiting to test him until well beyond a conservative incubation period “to make sure the test isn’t wasted.” He is angry about being trapped at this facility against his will, with no option of proving himself healthy. He is still in tremendous pain, and it gets worse every day.

My dad wants to die and is frustrated that he never got sick. He wants to escape the pain and be free of his crippled body.

As a society, we need to have a conversation about what the purpose of life is. And where the line of personal freedom lies in choosing to live according to what you believe is your own purpose?

My dad feels like he has been denied all of his rights simply because he is old. Was it right for the state to force him to not live alone? They said it was for his own protection, but he doesn’t appreciate being forced to endure a life devoid of quality.

Hi girlfriend is not in good shape. She has been in ICU for over a week, and it is unlikely that she will live. Why are they fighting so hard to keep her alive when she is deliberately letting herself die as soon as possible from her chronic illness? Wouldn’t it be more merciful to take her off the oxygen now so that she doesn’t have to suffer from her chronic illness any longer?

And what about the rest of us? Is it moral and just to keep all of us prisoners in our own homes because a government official doesn’t want us to get sick? Shouldn’t it be our right to choose that risk? In the beginning, I was okay with the “social distancing for three weeks to flatten the curve,” but now it’s been 6 weeks, we're at total lockdown, and we’ve evolved to “no one can get sick ever. Even saving one person from getting sick is worth it.” But is it? The majority of people dying are over 80, and I am guessing that my dad and his girlfriend aren’t the only old people who are ready to go. Was saving them worth destroying our economy over?