KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A vocal critic of the Iraq War that left him paralyzed, said he will no longer fight to stay alive.
Tomas Young has been in the national spotlight speaking out against the war.
Young was hit by a bullet years ago — just five days into his tour in Iraq. He said he signed up after Sept. 11. But Young said if he knew they were going there instead of Afghanistan, he never would’ve have enlisted, and never would’ve had to make the decision he did.
Young said he could put on his own pants more than five years ago, as seen in the documentary “Body of War.”
But today, the 33-year-old sits on his bed and can’t do much of anything without the help of his wife, Claudia Cuellar. The veteran said his body is deteriorating — so he made a decision. Young said sometime in the next couple of weeks, he will stop using life-extending medicine and quit eating and drinking.
“I just made the decision because I was tired of watching myself deteriorate and I didn’t want to watch it anymore,” he said.
Young said he deals with waves of nausea, he has skin ulcers, he can’t cough without assistance and has constant urinary tract infections. Those are things his wife said they deal with multiple times on a daily basis and that others don’t understand. She said it got really bad last year.
“The letters that Tomas has received, you know, people say things like ‘Please stay,’ and ‘Don’t give up’ and even use the word ‘suicide,'” Cuellar said.
She said they hope their story changes the country’s views on right-to-die, even though Cuellar knows it will be hard to see her husband go.
“I don’t know, I mean I’m going to be as ready as I can be, it’s his journey and I fully respect and support,” she said.
Young said he’s ready. In a final letter posted online on truthdig.com, Young writes to President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. He calls them out for taking the country to war in what he feels was the wrong country and “murdering” so many Americans and others.
He writes, “My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial.”
“I just basically want to try to make them see the error of their ways and the consequences of their actions,” he said.
Young said the Veterans Administration has not done much to help him. But while he is getting help from hospice, he is at home, where the couple said they want to be when Young passes.
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