Pedro Bial Opens up About Mother’s “Dignified” Death and Her Final request
rio de Janeiro,Brazil – Brazilian journalist Pedro Bial has shared deeply personal details about the final days of his mother,psychoanalyst Sussane Bial,who passed away at the age of 101. In a recent interview with O Globo, Bial discussed his new book, Isabel from the volleyball of life: the highest wave in Ipanema, and the profound impact his mother’s passing had on his viewpoint on life and death.
Bial revealed that his mother,a woman who once found immense joy in reading,reached a point where she experienced “no pleasure” in life.She explicitly “asked for help to die,” overwhelmed by what Bial described as the “indignities of decrepitude.”
“Being kept alive… We thought about carrying out an assisted suicide in Switzerland,” Bial recounted. “for one reason or another this did not happen. We went to take care of palliatives, which is the way to let a person die with dignity.”
The family opted for palliative care, focusing on ensuring Sussane Bial‘s comfort and dignity in her final moments. When she developed pneumonia, they made the challenging decision not to intervene with antibiotics, allowing the illness to take its course.
“It was good,” Bial stated, adding he told his mother, “You’re just shooting at them.”
Bial’s candid discussion highlights the complexities surrounding end-of-life care and the desire for agency and dignity in the face of mortality. He noted that the experience ultimately brought him a newfound clarity about the preciousness of life.
Keywords: Pedro Bial, Sussane Bial, Death, Palliative care, Assisted Suicide, Brazil, Obituary, grief, End of Life, Dignity, Journalist, Interview.
