Posted on 08/19/2007 1:17:54 PM PDT by wagglebee
After the seizures got really bad, the family made the decision to call the vet. She and her assistant came to our house. We gathered around Mojo, who lay quivering on the outdoor patio, and we showered him with a final round of affection. With great reverence and tenderness, the vet gave him a shot and he drifted peacefully to sleep, never to wake again.
With the vet and the assistant patiently waiting, we sat for quite a while to make our goodbyes before they wrapped him in a blanket and took him away to be cremated.
Very often, we treat dying dogs and cats more divinely and humanely than we treat dying human beings. As a pastor, I have watched doctors let dying patients suffer needlessly for the sake of avoiding exposure to lawsuits. I've seen families agonize about whether to end torturous life-extending treatments for loved ones. Many of my parishioners emphatically have told me that they do not want to be kept going with tubes and ventilators when their lives are really over.
If faithful people of many religions really believe that life is bigger than death, then why would we fight death when its natural time has come? If we know that death doesn't get the last word, then we can face it with dignity.
In June, our state had a historic opportunity to support legislation that would have allowed Californians to have more humane end-of-life options. But the state Assembly failed to bring the law, AB 374, the Compassionate Choices Act, to a vote. There is hope that it will come back to the floor of the Assembly again if enough citizens speak up for it.
AB 374 is very similar to the assisted suicide law in Oregon. The Oregon law's system of checks, balances and full medical accountability has proven effective in offering terminally ill patients a way to end their own lives before having to endure needless suffering at death. Relatively few terminally ill people have chosen to use the law, but many, many more have been comforted to know that they had the choice if they wanted it.
I hold life to be sacred, as do people who opposed AB 374 on religious grounds. But faith does not demand that we extend life artificially when it is time to die, or that we refrain from relieving the suffering of people who face terrible pain in the death process. Individual human beings are of supreme value partly because they have innate freedom of choice about how their own lives should unfold. People have a God-given right to certain choices about the manner of their own death, and it's time the law reflected this reality.
Jesus used his God-given freedom for the sake of awakening others to their freedom. He risked crucifixion because of his faith that death was a part of life, and not the other way around. His death was a vindication of life. There is a vast difference between the suicide of a person who might otherwise have been helped to have a longer, meaningful life by a therapeutic intervention, and the carefully monitored suicide of someone who is grateful for having lived out a good life in a body that is no longer viable.
May faith be brought to life by those among us who want to keep our mojo as long as we have the power to make choices, and help others do the same.
To learn more about the Compassionate Choices Act, see www.caforaidindying.org.
The Rev. Jim Burklo is the pastor of Sausalito Presbyterian Church and writes and gathers stories for the Sacred Space page on behalf of the IJ and the Marin Interfaith Council. If you would like to submit a story of no more than 400 words to Sacred Space, contact Burklo at jtburklo@yahoo.com.
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No, there really isn't any meaningful difference.
Is there a difference between assisted suicide and following Do-Not-Resuscitate orders?
Or what it means to be human and live and die according to God’s plan.
It is an act of pride to take your own life in defiance of God’s plan for you. A Christian minister should know this. This article saddens me.
All the difference in the world.
When it comes to terminal illness, so many liberals correctly point out the problem, but totally misfire on the solution. However, the “cure” being proposed by the right-to-die supporters is worse than the disease.
The solution is to improve the treatments of the terminally ill, which should include (IMHO) legalizing greater use of natural and alternative medicines, including some which are currently illegal.
When the need arises, and it does, you must be able to shoot your own dog.
Don’t farm it out, that doesn’t make it nicer, it makes it worse.
LAZARUS LONG
Please explain.
BTW, I’m not trying to be a troll about this, I’ve just never really had a conversation with somebody on the other side of this issue, and I’m curious about that position.
It struck me that he puts the life of an animal and a human being on the same level. Both are of the same importance to him. And so, since we put down animals who are suffering or old, in his mind, we should do the same to people.
I've been surprised how often that seems to be the case.
I had a minister who usually centered her sermons around her dog. And had a "Blessing of the Pets" twice a year. At one point, she raised the question, "Do our pets go to Heaven?" And she answered this way, "I hope so, because I don't want to be in Heaven if my pets aren't there."
So, she had made the choice: worshiping God and rejoicing in His presence was no big deal. She'd rather spend some quality time with a dog.
Hey, I love my dog too. But I kinda think God is more important -- but what do I know? I'm not a minister.
The difference is between action and inaction. If a person CHOOSES to have an advanced medical directive in which no action is taken to keep them alive, the person is still going to die a natural death in accordance with God’s Will. However, when proactive action is taken with the intent to end a person’s life, it is in violation of God’s Will.
As explained in the Ten Commandments, taking the life of an innocent person is NEVER God’s Will.
***AB 374 is very similar to the assisted suicide law in Oregon. The Oregon law’s system of checks, balances and full medical accountability has proven effective in offering terminally ill patients a way to end their own lives before having to endure needless suffering at death. Relatively few terminally ill people have chosen to use the law, but many, many more have been comforted to know that they had the choice if they wanted it.
I hold life to be sacred, as do people who opposed AB 374 on religious grounds. But faith does not demand that we extend life artificially when it is time to die, or that we refrain from relieving the suffering of people who face terrible pain in the death process. Individual human beings are of supreme value partly because they have innate freedom of choice about how their own lives should unfold. People have a God-given right to certain choices about the manner of their own death, and it’s time the law reflected this reality.
Jesus used his God-given freedom for the sake of awakening others to their freedom. He risked crucifixion because of his faith that death was a part of life, and not the other way around. His death was a vindication of life. There is a vast difference between the suicide of a person who might otherwise have been helped to have a longer, meaningful life by a therapeutic intervention, and the carefully monitored suicide of someone who is grateful for having lived out a good life in a body that is no longer viable.***
By logical extension, then because the ‘minister’ is going to die at some point, and will almost certainly go through extensive physical or psychological pain through some traumatic instance at some point in his life, then the only merciful thing to do is put a .300 explosive Weatherby magnum through his underused cranium.
There is no moral injunction against giving someone medical care.
I hope no such “minister” ever tries ministering to me that way; he’d better be damn sure he’s out of my reach if he does.
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