My niece recently died of cancer. Her father, a doctor, was very relieved.
She was the only other convert to Catholicism in the family, though we all left the Methodist Church once it became a political party. She attended the Melkite Church where I was baptized. I called her priest and he was there at her deathbed but what he said gave me the shivers.
He talked about how she was out of her pain now. Her father and her priest were both clearly relieved at that.
Even if they decide not to EXTEND your agony, they are not allowed to ease your death. So they “take you off life support.” That’s OK for a coma, but in many other cases they simply allow a conscious patient to suffocate or worse.
Sweet, huh?
A priest online once told that every extra instant of Life was a blessing, even if you were in the last stages of spinal cancer. Nobody SEES this pro-life mentality in action. it’s a throw-back to pre-anesthetic surgery, except back then you were allowed alcohol.
Like circumcision, this is a routine agony inflicted in every hospital. It is not entirely accidental that it is inflicted on the two most helpless groups in our society, the newborn and the terminally ill.
Pro-life demands that a girl carry a rapist’s child and raise it. A mulatto baby has ruined many a white girl’s life.
It is particularly interesting that the pro-life movement is so CRUEL. But they try to shame abortionists by claiming they are the only ones interested in the helpless babies. But helpless people in agony like my niece, they are interested in not in the slightest.
Nowadays when people go to hear Dr. Kevorkian talk about assisted suicide, they are surprised that MOST of what he talks about is actually why white people should UNITE! The man is on parole, and very few parolees of advanced age talk a lot about the crime they were imprisoned for in public.
But it is of interest to me that the man who saw terminal agony and knew he would eventually go to prison for fighting it is now talking about white racial unity.
The media and his audiences are mystified by both those actions on the part of Dr. Death.
One final question, why is Kevorkian called Doctor Death but not one of the hundred million other doctors is called Doctor Agony?
#1 by backbaygrouch4 on 05/29/2010 - 7:07 am
Justice Holmes once said that he did not consider the merits of a case because by the time it reached the Supreme Court the facts had been so mutilated that it was impossible to discern them. He aimed for rules that society could live with. This is true of all rules, moral and legal. The limitations of language render any law imperfect That is why judges need discretion. The least bright among us, and that too often includes clergy and civic leaders, cannot fathom this. Laws are written for the general, not the universal. To fail to see this is Wordism.
Lest you think Justice Holmes heartless, consider the alternative. Chief Justice Warren believed that rules derived from the individual case before him could be applied across society. Hence, Brown v Board of Education. How many lives has that monstrosity blighted?
One of Christianity’s better aspects is that allows for the forgiveness of sin, a cleaning of the slate. You put behind whatever misunderstanding there may have been over whatever the Wordists say and what life hands you. Theirs is but a preliminary judgement that seldom incorporates the virtues of mercy or prudence, the latter being the least understood, preached and appreciated of all virtues. The Final Judgement before an omniscient God will surely overturn many original ones.
#2 by Dave on 05/29/2010 - 10:39 am
If there is anybody who should know not to ask the law to do big things, it is we BUGTSERS.
In regard to end of life issues, all the law has to do is a little thing: It has to take the lawyer out of the loop when it comes to the prescription to dying people of heavy duty narcotics (that are necessarily highly addictive).
Heavy duty narcotics do have a place in the hands of the family of a dying person or the hands of hospice services caring for dying people.
Another thing little thing needs to happen: The coroner has to “let it pass”. Coroners need good judgment into what they look into.
Now, in reality, this is already happening. It happens when those caring for a dying person exercise good judgment.
Unfortunately, caregivers and families of dying people often exercise terrible judgment. It is a shame the law allows them to do that. The solution is to make them pay out of pocket for “heroic measures”. That would solve the problem immediately.
#3 by shari on 05/29/2010 - 11:43 am
This is something I expect will change very rapidly, once we regain our right minds. My mother died just 3wks ago. It was tough for the time it was being discussed whether to do surgery for a small bowel obstruction or not. She had cardiomyopathy and a type of luekemia. She was able to say that she did not want surgery. After that she was given all the pain reliever she wanted and kept hydrated. Every doctor and nurse we saw was a white American. I thought at the time, it had a LOT to do with how it went, and the care she received.