Normalizing suicide

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I actually have a certificate of hospice training under the Catholic University of Korea (and the Suwon Diocese).

People in hospice are voluntarily there for pallative care. We were trained to give the dying the best care possible; we even learned how to do foot massages for the dying to make their passing to God more comfortable. I really love what I studied and will do it again.

Frankly, many individuals who are dying experience significant pain. That’s what the hospice team is there for. However, the team, religious sisters, and priests offer so much love to them. It’s really beautiful. I’ve heard many stories while training for hospice about those who have passed on in hospice, and I was surprised that, at the last meal prepared by the team, they were laughing. Joyful. Taking pictures.

That’s when I realized, “Wow, there is beauty in suffering and beauty in the hour until death.”

Now, after being diagnosed with a recessive form of a neuromuscular disease, I’ve kind of had the taste of perpetual suffering for three years. But I’m keen in keep going further until I go to the Lord. I want to do something and help others. I just don’t want to commit suicide because I have this disorder, but rather I want to do something about it.

I struggled with suicide for a number of years due to mental illness, but interestingly this disease reminded me that I have purpose in life. My life is not in vain but God had a plan. Frankly, this disease was His plan and I’m ok with that.

Pax.
 
pulchraesamicamea said:
Now, after being diagnosed with a recessive form of a neuromuscular disease, I’ve kind of had the taste of perpetual suffering for three years. But I’m keen in keep going further until I go to the Lord. I want to do something and help others. I just don’t want to commit suicide because I have this disorder, but rather I want to do something about it.
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Thank you for you for holding on & remaining on the planet with us! It is a witness of faith. Please offer some of your suffering up for the sanctification of me & my family!
 
Thank you for your witness.

Your voice is valuable against the forces of hopelessness and faithlessness.

It helped me face the little everyday problems that pop up now and then without whining and/or bellyaching. 🙂
 
If I was in extreme pain, a slippery slope argument about possible abuses, wouldn’t be enough to make me think that the pain was worth it.
 
pulchraesamicamea said:
I want to do something and help others. I just don’t want to commit suicide because I have this disorder, but rather I want to do something about it.
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Lot’s of “I wants”. That is good. But it is also what is being advocated for others who may be in a situation similar to yours but who have different wants.
 
Thorolfr said:
If I was in extreme pain, a slippery slope argument about possible abuses, wouldn’t be enough to make me think that the pain was worth it.
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I know.
But it also wouldn’t be compelling enough to start something that put other people’s lives in danger.

I do understand about pain and depression so severe you wonder if it’s all “worth it”.
But at the end of the day, no good moral system can depend on feelings and emotions.

At the same time, it doesn’t mean leaving a person writing and helpless. We’re supposed to be usong our God-given brains to figure out how to reduce suffering and to not abandon a person and leave them all alone.
 
Thorolfr said:
Should we demand that they bear that pain just out of consideration of our feelings?
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If someone wanted to not be there for the person commiting suicide what do you think?
 
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Yes- that’s why we have community of those with rare diseases. I am in an online community for people with titinopathy. We have about a thousand people with this type of rare disease, so their opinions must be reflected as well. It’s not just about me 🙂

Gloria in excelsis Deo.
 
Yes- this is often the case. A plan could be developed by a treatment team to care for terminal illnesses.

Many patients feel this way. I felt this way, too. It’s not easy. So the team can work with the patients and allow him/her to pass on with less pain and less suffering.
 
Sarcelle said:
It helped me face the little everyday problems that pop up now and then without whining and/or bellyaching.
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Every problem is important, even the small ones. 🙂
Thank you. Many people feel absolutely hopeless when they are diagnosed with a terminal illness. Mine is chronic, however, so muscles just get progressively weak.
For those who are wondering about those who are struggling with terminal illness, the documentary series My Last Days is really beautiful. Although not Catholic, these individuals fight so hard for themselves and for their families.

@Jen7
Thank you. Still holding on 🙂 Praying for you and for your family!
 
Alright, how about the fact that assisted suicide is against the Hippocratic Oath? “I will not administer poison, even if asked, nor suggest such a course.” Ultimately, there’s no way to prevent someone fully intent on committing suicide from doing so, but we don’t need to make it easy.
 
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This happens specially in latin america (my region). People think because developed countries have legal abortion and euthanasia “we should have it too”.
 
And it’s not just insurance companies; governments don’t like spending millions on supporting a disabled person, either.
 
QwertyGirl said:
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pulchraesamicamea:
I want to do something and help others. I just don’t want to commit suicide because I have this disorder, but rather I want to do something about it.
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Lot’s of “I wants”. That is good. But it is also what is being advocated for others who may be in a situation similar to yours but who have different wants.
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It is not about wants, it is about whether you think life has value.

Some criminals seem to think they have a right to kill anyone who is inconvenient to them. Foe this reason they murder. We don’t just put our hands up.and validate their wants or allow.them to exercise what they think.is a right. Why do we instead call their actions out as immoral?

I sure as heck didn’t create myself or give myself life. Why would I think I have the right not only to extinguish it but to insist on others helping me to do so or having the law.or the medical profession bless my doing so?

And what of the people I leave behind? For all I know I am sentencing some of them to a lifetime of pain and regret by ending my own life early. Why are my sufferings more important than theirs?
 
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LilyM said:
And what of the people I leave behind? For all I know I am sentencing some of them to a lifetime of pain and regret by ending my own life early. Why are my sufferings more important than theirs?
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Or to turn that around, why are their sufferings more important than yours?
 
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Let me guess.

The arguments for euthanasia are made under the guise of compassion.

Who was it that said that compassion could lead to the gas chamber?

I think he was a Pope.
 
Flannery O’Connor wrote, “In the absence of faith, we govern by tenderness. And tenderness leads to the gas chamber.”

Mary Beth Bonacci comments on that HERE.
 
Thanks so much for the article link. I’m passing it on.

Here’s one of the sections which touches on some of the issues raised in this thread:

"Why is the world’s “compassion” so likely to veer toward the “gas chamber?” Because, simply, this world sees no purpose in suffering. And why would we? After all, if this life is all we have, then the only goal worth pursuing is to maximize our pleasure and minimize our pain. In that context, suffering makes no sense. It needs to be eradicated in any way possible–even if that means ending the life that is suffering, or the life that is causing someone else’s suffering.

As Christians, we don’t like suffering. Its existence is to some extent a mystery to us. We know it exists, know that is in some way a result of the fall, and that God did not spare His only Son from it. We know that we’re called, as Christ did, to strive to relieve the suffering of others. But we can never, ever attempt to relieve that suffering at the expense of another human life.

Church teaching has always been clear. It is always gravely immoral to directly take the life of an innocent human person. That decision belongs to God, always and in every case. It’s true in the case of an unborn child, no matter how small. It’s true in the case of a suffering, depressed, terminally ill person. It’s true in the case of the handicapped."
 
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