Death and Euthanasia


Traveler
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Hi SteveVH :)

In my own conversion to Catholicism, that was one question that I kept asking. God could have redeemed us in any way, yet the way we are redeemed is through the suffering and death of the Son of God. Isaiah 43 teaches the redemptive value of the suffering servant, very beautifully.

Looking to the Sacrament of Anointing the Sick, we see Christ as physician. The one who heals us, body and soul. So we are not left to suffer alone, and suffering with another (such as a you did with your brother) is, I believe, the greatest act of charity.

Thanks, madeleine1. Yes, the presence of the Lord was almost palpable and I finally learned what Mother Theresa meant when she said that she saw Christ in all of the suffuring.

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Or is it just a lack of faith - that we really do not understand death or what really is beyond death?

The Traveler

I don't think we can understand death at all levels as this time as we have not experienced it. It's kind of like birthing your first baby. You know it's going to hurt and you know you are going to love your baby so much the pain will seem worth it, but at the same time you don't really know what it will feel like until it actually happens to you. You know the outcome is going to be a baby, but you don't fully grasp what the birth will feel like. Also, labor kind of sucks, just like dying does. The outcome of birth is an amazing baby. The outcome of death for the believer is an amazing eternity.

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I don't object to euthanasia when death is imminent and the dying individual is competent enough to declare a desire for it. The problem I see is that, from a policy standpoint, what exactly is 'imminent?' Expected within the next 6 months? 6 weeks? 6 days?

I know that if I were 90 years old, my kidneys had just failed, and my liver was failing, euthanasia would seem like a good option at the time (rather than dying of urine toxicity). But at that point, it's pretty clear that there's nothing to be done. But how much further am I comfortable extending that? I don't know.

I also know that I'm not comfortable with allowing family to make that decision for a family member who is unable to express their own desire. In such cases, I think hospice should be used.

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I think something that shapes our perception of death, as well, is the manner of it.

- I've listened to burn victims, in hospital, scream until they're only capable of sceimg without their voices, for 4 days. That is not a good death.

- I've watched/listened to a poor boy cut in half scream for an eternity of minutes.

- Ive watched people tortured to death.

Ive watched far far too many people die screaming in agony. My SOUL revolts against such a death. In the US, this is a fairly rare thing... But it does happen. Accident victims en route to hospital, burn victims with no chance of survival in hospital, certain forms of cancer that are beyond our ability to manage pain.

A gruesome brutal death deserves mercy.

There are pieces of myself I can't get back for not helping them. And I didn't even choose not to. In every single case where Ive had to watch someone for screaming in mindless pain and terror, Ive been helpless to give them peace. But I'll tell you something, while I can't imagine a God who would punish mercy, I also don't care about my own death. Some things are just RIGHT. Bone deep, soul deep, right.

Someone mentioned "realistic scenario" early on.

A lot of our soldiers have PTSD, not from the battle, but from either giving mercy, or being unable to give mercy. (There are other reasons, also). More troops kill themselves every year than are killed in the action they fought in. The US military is our Nation's (if youre American!) largest employer. Others who work in dangerous jobs have a first hand account of grisly deaths too far away from medical treatment to save, as well as those that medicine could never save. Others who live in extreme poverty, watch gangs and cartels torture whole families to death. In a middle class 9-5 world, maybe deaths in screaming agony are unrealistic. That's a GOOD thing. But it doesn't mean they're unrealistic even in our own country, much less in others where conflict is the norm, or medicine is the rarity.

How do I feel about laws being passed?

Actually ... pretty squidgy.

I think that by keeping euthanasia illegal, it keeps assisted suicides to only those for whom it is the moral imperative. HOWEVER, I hope our juries and our spiritual leaders take that into account.

On this same subject: My grandfather practiced medicine through WWI and onward. He said that the first 2 great wars were fought mostly by farm boys. They were used to the necessity of putting good animals down. It was the RARE patient of his who didn't believe that a kind and merciful God would judge their actions in ending suffering accordingly. But (again, this is his view of things) as our soldiers became city kids sheltered from death, pain, and suffering... There came the belief that they would go to hell. That their spirits were lost. He said his practice became overwhelmed with those twisting in guilt either over having shot a dying friend to end their pain, believing they were going to hell or perhaps even sent their friend to hell as well, when they were begging to die... Or those twisting in guilt over having NOT helped, falling asleep with screaming in their ears every night.

I can't believe this is right, either.

So in BadWolf's ideal world... No one dies screaming, and the moral imperative is understood & accounted for. But people are also not throwing their lives away, or taking the last few precious moments.

I don't want much, just the world.

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