Have you noticed that the subject of euthanasia/assisted suicide is picking up momentum ”” that it is, so to speak, taking on a life of its own? I mean in particular that we seem to be approaching one of those interesting tipping points in public debate where the tone of those supporting a once-shocking idea is shifting from defensive to offensive.
Take for a representative example one of the “letters of the day” in the [National] Post’s July 22 edition, from Alexander McKay of Calgary. Mr. McKay argues for assisted suicide with the conviction of one endorsing, rather than flouting, received wisdom. The notion that the individual not only has the right to control his time of departure from this Earth, but has the right to society’s complicity in a death deliberately chosen, is embedded in the calm and confident air with which Mr. McKay projects his reasons for wishing, when his “wonderful life” dwindles down to a putative final season of debility and suffering, to “consider my options.”
Mr. McKay does not wish to see his life “cruelly extended” (assumption: suffering and pain are unnatural add-ons to life, not as much a part of life as youth and vigour). He says, “life is for the living” (assumption: the terminally ill no longer hold the moral status of “living”). And, of course, “Canada’s medical system is for those who need it” (assumption: medical “need” is an entirely fungible notion).
Very, very chilling … especially some of the letters.
We clergy see the culture of death creeping into the life of the church in seemingly innocuous ways and is manifested around the death of a parishioner. For example, yuppies and younger seem quite impatient for a terminal elder to hurry up and die, even though they’re unaware that there’s anything wrong with their impatience. I’ve heard the concern expressed many, many times over a deathbed by one of the family that they’ve got to get back to Calgary or Vancouver or wherever for an important meeting so, “How much longer is this going to take.” I’ve begun to try to slip in little pastoral remarks like, “Death demands our full attention and shows us that we’re not in control and that it trumps our worldly cares.” Hopefully that will register sometime in their lives.
Also, I’ve heard many people
(oops! hit the tab button) …Also, I’ve heard many people, again mostly boomer-yuppies and some younger– but mostly boomers– unselfconsciously speak of cremation as a way of dealing with death on their terms rather than on God’s. We should all pray for a right understanding of these things.
Speaking of cremation…I see no logical difference between the ashes in an urn and the dust left behind in a coffin. The only practical difference is time.
Why should the young care when the old get “too old”? We’ve already created a culture of death with abortion – this is just the other end of the life span. The young have grown up seeing society view life as utilitarian and expendable – they are just echoing what they see around them.
Yuppie is a pretty broad category. I spent nine years ministering to my Father as he slipped away, the ravages of time taking a nibble here, a nibble there, until he was physically and mentally broken beyond repair. He was killed by the complications of an arm broken in a fall and the surgery following. Vascular dementia was a contributing factor as well. I agonized over his suffering and still to this day chastise myself for not being present with him when he left this world. He should not have had to die alone. And who would attend him but a hospice CNA on the night shift.
I find no redeeming value in suffering for the sake of suffering as though it were in some way the price one pays for being human. I have never understood how the way in which we die is glorifying to God. The only possible way I might be able to reconcile this is to attribute martyrdom to each and every Christian who dies without palliative care either by choice or by chance. For as I see it, the refusal of respite from pain during a seriously debilitating disease, would leave one’s wedding garment a deeper shade of scarlet than one who takes the morphine drip. There are times when even a morphine drip is useless. Does one qualify for example for the fourth heaven instead of the third if one keeps the stiff upper lip and heroically bears his agony in solitude, for he is certainly alone in such. See, I always wonder if Jesus loves us enough to help us though such time and not just by being there. Or is there really only the inscrutability of a God, who in his goodness and for his own reasons allows us know intimately the suffering of his Son. Abba? If this is a love the depth of which is beyond comprehension, it is a puzzling paradox and frankly terrifying. Just sayin..
welcome to socialized medicine – the state, wishing to save money, will sacrifice sick citizens for whom the state does not wish to pay to cure or treat.
As good as this article is, I prefer Matthew Parris’s take on it, “Why I’m Opposed To Legalising Assisted Suicide” in the [UK] Daily Telegraph http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article6735530.ece
Sophy (#7),
There are utilitarians across the political spectrum; any provider of health care ultimately resorts to some form of cost benefit analysis. Unless people are informed by a sense of life as precious in itself, I’m not sure that it really matters – from a pro-life point of view – whether health care is socialized or not. Peter Singer’s philosophy will sell in libertarian as well as in secular socialist markets.
[url=http://catholicandreformed.blogspot.com]Catholic and Reformed[/url]
Good article in #8 link. But it fails to address the key secular basis for support of AS: relief of intractable pain. Pain specialists have made clear that even terminal pain is treatable. Once people become aware of that, even secular support for AS plummets. oregon’s experience has been that the majority of AS have been for primary reasons other than pain. e.g. “qulaity of life” (read: I am too ashamed to have someone change my diapers).