Euthanasia

  • Thread starter Thread starter KamilaZ
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
K

KamilaZ

Guest
Is euthanasia in any case okay?
I think if i was suffering that greatly i might consider it.
Or if someone close to me was in that much pain i wouldnt want them to suffer, so if they chose to do that, i wouldn’t go against them.
 
I honestly feel it depends on the situation. If the person is dieing of lung cancer or some other type of cancer where you suffer; then I think it should be up to the person that says weather they want to live or not.
The pain people endure is so terrible that if they know they are going to die for sure, it should be their decision along with one other person. Just like if you become brain dead there is always a person that decides weather or not to pull the plug.
 
What is it we fear most as human beings in this world. More than our own death, we fear the deaths of our spouses and children. More than our own pain, we fear the the sufering of the ones we love or the burden we might place on them when we are infirm.

The Blessed Mother first lost her parents, then her husband. Then she suffered with her son through the entire ordeal of his crucifixion. She stood quietly at the cross making no move to relieve Him of the suffering that paid for our sins.

Even though she experienced the glory of her Son’s resurrection, the Blessed Mother lived to 90 some years old according to most traditions. I would imagine she she relived those moments in an agony we can not appreciate.

John Paul the great said that kind of suffering, united with the sacrifice made on Calvary is made acceptible to him no matter how imperfect that offering may be.

When we take an action to end a life, we assume that we know better than God what we are capable of or what our loved one is capable of. The sin here is arrogance - Lucifer’s sin.

The virtue against this sin is humility like that which the Blessed Mother showed at the cross.
 
Antegin said:
The Blessed Mother first lost her parents, then her husband. Then she suffered with her son through the entire ordeal of his crucifixion. She stood quietly at the cross making no move to relieve Him of the suffering that paid for our sins.
Click to expand...
Thank goodness the Blessed Mother didn’t resort to “mercy killing”. Who can say they have endured more agony than her Son?
 
Scott6003 said:
I honestly feel it depends on the situation. If the person is dieing of lung cancer or some other type of cancer where you suffer; then I think it should be up to the person that says weather they want to live or not.
The pain people endure is so terrible that if they know they are going to die for sure, it should be their decision along with one other person. Just like if you become brain dead there is always a person that decides weather or not to pull the plug.
Click to expand...
Like vz71 wrote, it’s not our life to give or take. Nonetheless, Scott6003 brings up some interesting points.

It would seem easy to “judge” others in pain who might want to die just to end the suffering. That is certainly understandable, from both sides; on one hand, when we reject our own life, it’s offensive to God, on the other, one cannot really put oneself in another’s shoes who is experiencing chronic, severe, unrelenting pain and say, “just suck it up”.

Now, “brain dead” is a different story, in a moral sense. Assuming by brain dead we mean being kept alive by a ventilator, or other “extrodinary means”, it is licit to allow death by "pulling the plug(s). Fortunately, though, brain dead humans don’t feel pain.

Where moral decisions become more difficult, however, is in debilitating, painful conditions like with terminal cancer and in cases like Terry Schiavo, where she could live with nutritional and other supportive care.

There is also the psycological dimention, where some people could live out their terminal condition with proper degrees of pain control, if they’re so suited, and others who could be easily talked into so-called “assisted suicide” by the Kevorkians of this world, when they could live out a relatively comfortable life with proper medical care.

The most difficult cases are where the pain is so severe and unrelenting, the patient would have to be drugged into a stupor in order to be comfortable.
 
I think the idea that euthanasia may be a good thing in some circumstances is based on a false premise. That false premise is that death will bring about an end of suffering.

When a person dies, one of three things happens.
  • They will go directly to Heaven and stand before God (very rare).
  • They will go to Purgatory to suffer temporal punishment and be purified to one day stand before God in Heaven (less common than many people care to admit).
  • They will go to Hell and suffer permanent punishment (sadly, all too common).
    Thus, unless a person is literally a saint, their suffering will continue, either in Purgatory or Hell. And if they are a saint, they will not commit the grave sin of suicide, the murder of oneself.
It is suffering that purifies us. That suffering may come during our Earthly life or after it. However, as we are sinful creatures, we need the purifying effect of suffering in order to stand before God in His Heaven. That or we suffer in eternal separation from God in Hell.

One final point. An animal does not have an immortal soul. This difference is why it is morally okay to euthanize an animal but never a person.
 
rpp said:
When a person dies, one of three things happens.
  • They will go directly to Heaven and stand before God (very rare).
  • They will go to Purgatory to suffer temporal punishment and be purified to one day stand before God in Heaven (less common than many people care to admit).
  • They will go to Hell and suffer permanent punishment (sadly, all too common).
Click to expand...
I am curious how you arrive at the conclusion concerning how often a given circumstance happens.
 
Newbie2 said:
It would seem easy to “judge” others in pain who might want to die just to end the suffering. That is certainly understandable, from both sides; on one hand, when we reject our own life, it’s offensive to God, on the other, one cannot really put oneself in another’s shoes who is experiencing chronic, severe, unrelenting pain and say, “just suck it up”.
Click to expand...
No judgement at all.
One’s own death is simply not our option.

There are plenty of other medical options available to ease suffering.

When God decides that it is enough, it will be.
 
vz71 said:
I am curious how you arrive at the conclusion concerning how often a given circumstance happens.
Click to expand...
I think Jesus was pretty authoritative in this area. I will quote Him.
Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. Matthew 7:13 Douay-Rheims
Click to expand...
I have known many good people, but only one person who I thought was pure enough to have by-passed the purification of Purgatory, and that was a nun who suffered greatly in her final years. The fact that the Church has canonized only a couple of thousand people supports the view that few people go directly Heaven.

However, that does not mean that we should not try to live in a way as to try to go directly to Heaven. After all, if you aim for Heaven, but fall a bit short, you land in Purgatory and will make it to Heaven eventually. But if you aim for Purgatory and miss… :eek: http://bestsmileys.com/zapped/3.gif
 
Scott6003 said:
I honestly feel it depends on the situation. If the person is dieing of lung cancer or some other type of cancer where you suffer; then I think it should be up to the person that says weather they want to live or not.
The pain people endure is so terrible that if they know they are going to die for sure, it should be their decision along with one other person. Just like if you become brain dead there is always a person that decides weather or not to pull the plug.
Click to expand...
I think you brought up some good points, because I have been in a like situtation, my bestfriend had MS, and went brain dead…there was nothing anyone could do, she could live on life support but why live that life if you cant even wake up to enjoy it, hooked onto a machine. I think by letting her go, she can experience life after death which is filled woth joy instead of peoples pain.
look at it also if you were sixty and developed cancer in my opinon
i woudl want to put my arrangements an order and die with my dignity, instead of seeing myself and my family suffer just to die.
 
I think peoples fear is death.
It the “end”, but why look at in that way?
why not look at it and accept it as one stage of your life, now you are moving on to your next stage of life.
some people will die in there sleep or in some freak accident,
some though know they are going to suffer before they die.
Instead of dying crippled and broken in a way, I believe they should have to choice to “bow out gracefully”.
But only in the most dire situtations, so you can die strong and with dignity, rather than having to suffer and see your family suffering, you can say goodbye and accept that you are going to die, without fear and move on to the next stage of life.:confused: 🤷
I believe having that choice is very benefical.
 
vz71 said:
No judgement at all.
One’s own death is simply not our option.

There are plenty of other medical options available to ease suffering.

When God decides that it is enough, it will be.
Click to expand...
You’re right about God, but I’m afraid there are limited and insufficient options for some. We can pray for doctors and researchers to come up with more and better options for relief of such unrelenting and severe pain.
 
krys said:
I think you brought up some good points, because I have been in a like situtation, my bestfriend had MS, and went brain dead…there was nothing anyone could do, she could live on life support but why live that life if you cant even wake up to enjoy it, hooked onto a machine. I think by letting her go, she can experience life after death which is filled woth joy instead of peoples pain.
look at it also if you were sixty and developed cancer in my opinon
i woudl want to put my arrangements an order and die with my dignity, instead of seeing myself and my family suffer just to die.
Click to expand...
You make some very valid points. I used to thing euthanasia was just a bad idea: only God can take a life, etc, but also because I can see how it could be abused (which I think is still a very real concern). Then my dad killed himself. He had emphysema and according to his note, he felt life was just not worth living anymore as he couldn’t do any of the things he used to enjoy. My problem arises from my uncertainty that he had really thought things through. I’m afraid he was simply depressed (he’d been to the hospital a few weeks before his death for depression - unfortunately he was from the “old” school and refused anti-depressants because he wasn’t “crazy” - ironic, huh? He was also a very independent person who didn’t want to ask for help of any kind. He wasn’t a very good dad, he was emotionally distant, and I think he was afraid we’d reject him in his hour of need (we wouldn’t have). I wonder if he’d had a legal choice if maybe he wouldn have gotten more information on his options first. Also, that he might not have made his decision in a mood of isolated desperation. And if he still decided he wanted to go, he could have let us know first so we wouldn’t have had so much trauma. He could also have used a more peaceful, dignified means than the gunshot to the head that he chose. 😦
 
As someone who has lost family members to both suicide and cancer. I have to say that death is not something one does on his own. In the case of my family member who committed suicide, he left a once strong family in shambles behind. Torn and lost. It has been almost twenty years since his death and we still are at a lost and I find myself almost in tears just thinking of it.

A few years ago we lost another family member to breast cancer. There was great suffering involved in her death, it was long and hard, but she had her family by her side. And the night before she passed on she had her whole family at her side. She comforted us and walked us through it, all while she was needing help to go the bathroom and to feed herself. It has been five years since she died. Our family can gather around and talk of how her death was with some sadness but without the hurt of not understanding.

The one who took his own life **left us **a note with what we should do and how to take care of his children and belongings. But that was very little comfort.

The one who died of cancer, told us how to take care of her children and belongings. This left us with a sense of duty and knowledge.

Euthanasia robs those who are left behind of the knowledge and purpose of the life and death of the one who has gone on to the afterlife.

Again I state death like birth is not something that one does alone, there are many people involved. And it is a very selfish way of looking at it to think other wise.
 
The idea that helping someone to end their own life is somehow ennobling or compassionate is false. It implies that there is no dignity in suffering, no human integrity in the death process, and no nobility in disability. I am certain there are many disabled folks who would take exception to that theory.

My brother in law died of lung/brain cancer. Hospice nurses, those angels of mercy, were there to alleviate all physical suffering, tend to the emotional and spiritual needs of patient and family, and allow him complete integrity as he lived out his last moments with his family, naturally. When his death arrived, the presence of God was all around.

As rpp stated, there is life beyond our physical plane. Who are we to second guess God? Perhaps the suffering we see in the end stages for some is their purification process. Perhaps the merciful Lord wishes for them to be washed clean so that they may join Him instantly upon their natural death. Yet we arrogant humans want to interfere with this profoundly important transition. It’s not enough that we must tinker with the processes involved in creation, now we must mess with the end of life as well.

People who are in the end of life stages are almost universally depressed. Most folks in nursing homes and assisted living facilities are kept on anti-depressants because brain chemistry and circumstances have conspired to cause despair and hopelessness. If you were to ask someone who thought they wanted to end their life what it is they really want you might be surprised by the response. Most folks do not wish their own death. They wish, instead, a release from the pain, sufferring, and loneliness. But in our fast-food culture, we would rather just let them die than minister to their whole-person needs. How very tragic. And Catholics are jumping on this bandwagon. Shameful.

Death is not undiginified. Suffering is not inhuman. Every Catholic who watched JPII struggle for years with his various maladies should have learned that lesson. We have a treasure trove of history with the saints who would welcome sufferring as a way to do penance for the sins of the human race. Instead of looking to the beautiful teaching of our Church and trusting God, we equate mercy and compassion for humans the same as we do with our pets.
 
I’ve always thought that when I am suffering, or whatever, I don’t want to be put on life support. Why? Because there are many ways to help the pain and all. But when it comes to hydration and a feeding tube, forget it. Leave those in until I die of “natural” causes.

Just a little bit here that’s sort of humiliating, For a long time I didn’t come across the wore Euthanasia in writing. If I did, I didn’t know how it was pronounced. So, when I heard the spoken word, I thought they were saying “Youth in Asia.” I always wondered what the young people in asia had anything to do with it!!!
 
From the Catechism:
Euthanasia
Click to expand...
2276 Those whose lives are diminished or weakened deserve special respect. Sick or handicapped persons should be helped to lead lives as normal as possible.
Click to expand...
2277 Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable.
Click to expand...
Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded.
Click to expand...
2278 Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of “over-zealous” treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one’s inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decisions should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected.
Click to expand...
2279 Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted. The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged.
Click to expand...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top