How Do I Handle Arguments About Sensitive Topics?

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attaininggrace

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My relative keeps wanting me to change my mind about euthanasia and tells me terrible stories. What should I do? Should I tell her to agree to disagree? I resent her trying to change my mind on these and other issues.
 
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Do you believe she would accept it if you told her you were simply no longer willing to discuss the subject with her?
 
Thank you, Zaccheus. She might. I don’t see her very often, but she has a tendency to go on about this topic. Why people want to discuss euthanasia in nice restaurants beats me.
 
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Some people have seen relatives die with poor pain management.
It doesn’t excuse euthanasia, but this could be a reason.
And people can get very heated over it.
I got into a discussion about this topic with a co worker whose young relative died in a lot of pain and she was furious that I suggested that euthanasia was not the answer.
Gave me the cold shoulder for the rest of our shift.
 
Her family had a lot of trouble with the Church so she has become very anti-Catholic
 
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She has read articles about this, apparently, and maybe she saw it when she was a nurse.
 
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Just ignore/avoid for awhile and then check to see if it stops.
 
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Say “that is interesting” and change the subject. If she does not change the subject, leave or hang up the phone. You do not have to argue with anyone.
 
Second hand trauma is very real. Watching somebody else suffer can cause wounds in us, and maybe this is what’s going on.
Of course, there are better mean of pain management than euthanasia, but maybe she’s scared.
 
Tell her straight that you just don’t want to talk about it anymore. It’s a boundaries thing.
 
attaininggrace said:
Why people want to discuss euthanasia in nice restaurants beats me.
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You mean euthanasia is what she likes to talks about while she’s eating? Most people would avoid dragging up the subject of painful deaths at mealtimes. It would take their appetite away.
 
You would think so, Bartholemew! We had finished eating, but it was still my birthday and we were still in a nice restaurant, so she is odd.
 
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I will do that, I think. I had to do that with her about the Church.
 
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That is great advice. I never raised it with her and tried to change her views, that I can remember.
 
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She wanted to talk about euthanasia on your birthday in a nice restaurant? Tell her to stop killing everyone’s mood with morbid topics.
 
On the contrary, engage her more. People challenge you because they want to be able to defend any change in their own beliefs should it come up.

Use the question method to draw her out. Keep asking why. Paraphrase what she says. Also, repeat her last few words of every sentence to get her to keep talking. You need all these skills anyways. Pretty soon, she will avoid you because she may learn you are the strident one who wants to change hearts and minds.

Take a course in apologetics. Important topics don’t stop for anything. Think, “this may be the last time I have to change her mind.”

If there’s something you don’t know, say that you will find out. Also, do a lot of listening. Most people talk themselves into a corner unaided.
 
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