Posted on 11/02/2014 6:01:40 PM PST by CorporateStepsister
A 29-year-old terminal cancer sufferer who had previously spoken of her right to die has ended her own life surrounded by her family.
According to friends and family of Brittany Maynard, she passed away in her Portland, Oregon, home after her condition worsened and the tumor took over.
However she was able to choose to die before she lost her ability to function.
People.com said she wrote on Facebook : 'Goodbye to all my dear friends and family that I love.
'Today is the day I have chosen to pass away with dignity in the face of my terminal illness, this terrible brain cancer that has taken so much from me … but would have taken so much more.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
He will. He will have perfect mercy on her.
Exactly; I wonder how Brittany will explain to God her ‘choice’ along with her open promotion of using her terminal illness as a means of trying to push other states into reneging on voter chosen statutes. Not just move to Oregon and end her life, but to literally end up making it into some major social issue that pressures other states into discarding an issue that was already voted on.
I don’t think it was God telling her “Well done Thou Good and Faithful Servant.” It was someone a lot less loving.
I think you bring up an excellent point.
Eagerness.
For me eagerness, depending on the actual state of the person, would be a disqualifier.
Eagerness to die would be. Desire to be out of pain that can’t be totally controlled anymore, different story.
This woman was not at end of life stage. I wouldn’t have considered her to be someone that should have done it. She still could have had ups and down periods. She was still eating and drinking. She was still enjoying family and friends. There could have been more time taking care of her. Others could have had some opportunities to care for her, but they were taken away.
If the person only has a day or two, and the hospice people who care for dying folks, many know the common signs people go through dying , and know that generally when they start/stop doing “x” death’s 2-3 days away. this would be the time I’d say if that person had expressed they might want help, to see if they can still say yes or no. They are so drugged up on painkillers at the end, they hasten death if they are morphine based.
This argument would work....if you presume that being in severe-doped up situation twenty-four hours a day is desirable.
Even if you end up in stage four cancer, you don’t get the five-star pain relief stuff until the final month. That’s the point where you finally get some relief, but are befuddled the remaining days of your life.
You drew a paralel between your beloved dog (and I sincerely understand that kind of bond. We grew up with pets as well as livestock. We’ll have to put down one of our dogs soon. Just the thought saddens us) and a persons desire to end their life due to the pain and suffering. I wished to point out the distinctions and substantiate my reason in doing so.
Also, I was obligated to elaborate-concerning the topic of this thread-why I hold to my opinions.
Finally, I expressed grief and condolences as most of us do for the Maynard family.
My comments were never intended to be accusatory towards you personally.
Good point.
I think you shoe the difference between religious folks and secular.
Secular looks at it as a right and they may not know where they’re going after, or that it’s just over.
Religious folks usually talk about “going home to God” and being with departed family again.
Right.
Thing is, she was still able to enjoy life and enjoy eating, drinking, socializing, traveling, and other things. She was clearly able to pose for a PEOPLE cover and fulfill her travel wish list. She did a lot with herself and still had her looks (yes, I am that shallow at times) and was kicking.
If she were literally at THE END of the line where the pain was nonstop and it only took a ‘little more’ morphine, okay, but even then, it’s because she’s at the END. She wasn’t at the end though and never should have done that.
I don’t think we can say if it affected her thought process or not.
If it causes a chemical imbalance in the brain, sure it’s possible. Lots of depressed folks have terrible chemical imbalances in their brains that if they go off meds, they go suicidal.
I think in these cases God is merciful because truly they are not thinking properly. If they are Christians for certain they are not thinking in their right mind.
I dunno; a lot of stoners like to be doped up on a regular basis so there must be some kind of enjoyment there.
I think the concept of a “suicide-selfie” is morbidly attention-whorish.
Depends on the government in question.
Godless govt, damn right.
God-fearing govt, nope. We’d have never thought about govt offing people to save a buck 100 years ago. Course they hadn’t taken over healthcare either and determined what level of care you get.
A great lesson that charity and compassion and mercy are not the purvue of human government. It’s the church’s.
When government gets involved with “charity”... you get compulsory taxes and faceless uncaring bureacracy. And that’s the best you can hope for. Because govt was never designed to do this. Not its purpose. It was to establish stability and order from chaos; to ensure justice; to punish evildoers; to protect its citizens; to ensure safe environment to freely worship God in.
Stoners like to get doped up, I agree....but their trend is usually to do a joint get through X number of hours in a less stressful state (as they perceive) and then repeat that six hours later. The amount of THC goes up every couple of months to meet the body adjusting to it. At some point, the guy maxes out.
The whole stoner thing is that they find some little world they can live in and not stress out. If a stoner didn’t have a friend or relative to sponge off...they’d eventually be the guy living under the bridge and just living for the minimum existence factor. I’ve seen those characters in the US, and I’ve seen them here in Europe.
One’s inability to stop sins from happening does not mean one sits back to let God judge without us doing our part to at least warn.
I understand EXACTLY WHAT YOU SAID. Here is what I posted on another FR...
Prayers for Brittany’s family.
I have posted before here on FR my families experience w/a Glioblastoma Muliforme. So with my history and horrific knowledge of what occurs w/a Glioblastoma that I UNDERSTAND her decision and her families support of it.
Glios “grow” volumetrically and quickly. The “blastoma” is the insidious path between healthy brain tissue that the tumor takes. Today the pt may speak a word or two tomorrow, speech is gone.
My mom had seizures that broke her teeth, and at one point bit thru her tongue (her facial spasms actually displaced her bite guard). At the end moms seizures were so violent (Dilantin and other anti seizure meds stopped working) that the hospital bed (locked wheels) would “jump.” And she was only about 4’8” and 100 lbs BEFORE she took ill.
If there is another version of hell on earth, I’d like it explained to me. Her illness lasted six months and one day (the extra day because we know one of her neurologists said “she won’t live 6 months”) from the day I found her on the kitchen floor (she had a grand mal seizure). She had never complained of headaches, or dizziness (but she had bruises and scraps that were discovered AFTER she was admitted to the hospital so she must have had seizures when she was alone). In moms case the parts of her brain affected caused hundred of seizures (that both surgery and meds only slowed never stopped). She was 55 when she died.
So I truly understand why Brittany did what she did.
I understand.
While it was an imperfect parallel, on one level, I was considering it more from the “loved one” angle. It isn’t that I was approaching the topic lightly or without a great deal of thought, bringing into it my Christian background as well.
I think of Samson, and I think of Saul, and I see room for mercy for a truly dying person in pain that cannot be dealt with. But as I pointed out clearly, really truly at the end of life, one that is in the dying process. Not this woman. she is not an example that fits that.
My other point is that when people are dying slowly in hospice and enter into that last stage where they are dying, pain meds are both masking pain and also probably easing them towards death at the same time. Generally not on purpose to kill them, but the end effect is that it does.
Just a few months ago I listened to a sermon by a pastor who had traveled to a third world country. As he was walking to a village there was a person lying on the side of the road. The pastor had cancer at the time. I do not recall whether or not his condition was terminal.
The individual who was lying on some kind of blanket or cardboard was dying of cancer. No medication. No treatment. Just suffering. This persons asked the man if he had anything to take. The pastor gave this man his entire supply of medication. Due to the circumstances, he was unable to stay with the man.
For so many in this world, the process of dying is not only physically painful, but emotionally hopeless. That person, unless help came along other than a pastor providing him with temporary pain relief and/or the Lord granting him His divine mercy, died alone on that roadside.
I am thankful that my loved ones were able to benefit by modern medicine and society, and had been relieved of some of the pain before they died. Intentionallly administering an overdose of drugs, regardless whether the state law allows you to or not, is criminal because you play an instrumental role in the death of an individual.
You do realize that in the third world a lot of people ignore the people telling them to take only 1 or 2 capsules a day, and instead take far more at once than they should. They can kill themselves doing this with some of those medications. The pastor could have also very well killed the guy giving him those medications if this particular guy did that and scarfed down the meds at once.
Don’t get the impression I am against caring for the dying. I’m not. There’s obvious value in it. I don’t think if you’ve read what I wrote, could come to that conclusion.
I tried to send you a PM, but due to my noob status I was unable to. I guess I’m on probation. :^)
People in third world countries generally can’t afford modern medicine or medication let alone enough to overdose on. I’m not going to assume the man overdosed. Your suggestion brings to mind an interesting question. How do ppl in third world countries-in general-deal with terminal illness?
I know missionaries who have traveled around the world. I will ask them this question.
From what you’ve expressed, it does not appear that you advocate the administering of drugs in order to cause an overdose. You seem to be expressing, in my view, the sentiment that you could understand how this would happen.
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