Serious Retrospection Of Legalised Euthanasia In Medical Settings Needed

[centurionguard]

I think there should be much retrospection from a Christian setting on Morality Ethics when people consider Euthanasia as an option in government and private hospitals.
Just how much leniency does the Catholic Church give on this topic ? My guesstimate would be none.

I was reading an article in my local newspapers editorial section this morning which reads as follows…

Where is the ‘quality of life?’

To The Editor:

When there is absolutely no hope or cure the person and or the family should have the choice of what goes on in your time of need.

A person with a terminal illness should be able to fill out a will in advance and state his/her options in it. If there is no hope let that person tell the health care system to help them die immediately and not let either the person or their family suffer.

If there is no will, then the immediate family should be given the choice of telling the system to help the person die immediately, for example by lethal injection.

The way it is now, the system tells the person ‘we will keep you comfortable.’ All that means is they keep giving you morphine, remove the intravenous, and do not feed you. Is that the kind of quality of life we are asking for?

Our system is morbid and very cruel to let the person suffer while their family members watch.

 

[centurionguard]

I remember thirteen years ago when my beloved father was in the Neuro-Intensive care unit due to a traumatic 30 foot fall from a Bell Tower in my home Catholic parish.
He suffered a moralizing devastation of being diagnosed as a paralyzed quadriplegic of the worst degree not able to move from the neck down, unable to speak due to full ventilation of his lungs by ventilator even though he had his full mental faculty. Was my fathers quality of life in serious question ? Of course it was.
But it was quite some surprise when Doctors and Nurses told my family they could shut down life support as some form of a charitable merciful act on their part. Needless to say my family was quite surprised and appalled by their unscrupulous suggestions.
After eleven long years of suffering faithful devotion my beloved father passed away in the Virgin Mary’s compassionate heart peacefully with his beloved family at his bedside.

 

[Newbie2]

Active euthanasia is murder i.e. verboten. “Passive” euthanasia is highly questionable, and there we run into a need to be very careful about how we define it.

Giving any medication with the intent of causing or hastening death as a primary cause in not permitted. However, giving medication in order to make a person comfortable that has the unintended or unforseen side effect of death is acceptable.

Witholding medication that is keeping a person alive can be acceptable, and that’s where each circumstance is different. Witholding food and water, if that’s all a person needs to live aside from routine medical care, is not acceptable. Where the confusion and difficulty lie is in situations where a person is in such a state of dementia that a feeding tube cannot be maintained, i.e. they keep pulling it out.

I think the letter writer in the OP is misguided about how to address the problem of suffering in terminal patients. Efforts should be directed towards relieving the suffering rather than actively hastening their death.

“Helping” a person to die is a chilling concept, especially if the decision is removed from the person or family through the Nationalization of health care (which is a different subject altogether).

 

[Langdell]

I remember thirteen years ago when my beloved father was in the Neuro-Intensive care unit due to a traumatic 30 foot fall from a Bell Tower in my home Catholic parish.
He suffered a moralizing devastation of being diagnosed as a paralyzed quadriplegic of the worst degree not able to move from the neck down, unable to speak due to full ventilation of his lungs by ventilator even though he had his full mental faculty. Was my fathers quality of life in serious question ? Of course it was.
But it was quite some surprise when Doctors and Nurses told my family they could shut down life support as some form of a charitable merciful act on their part. Needless to say my family was quite surprised and appalled by their unscrupulous suggestions.
After eleven long years of suffering faithful devotion my beloved father passed away in the Virgin Mary’s compassionate heart peacefully with his beloved family at his bedside.

I’m shocked that any medical professional would even consider taking a person who’s not brain-dead off necessary life support! Was this in Canada? I don’t think it would be legal in the U.S. … at least not yet.

 

[centurionguard]

Active euthanasia is murder i.e. verboten. “Passive” euthanasia is highly questionable, and there we run into a need to be very careful about how we define it.

Giving any medication with the intent of causing or hastening death as a primary cause in not permitted. However, giving medication in order to make a person comfortable that has the unintended or unforseen side effect of death is acceptable.

Witholding medication that is keeping a person alive can be acceptable, and that’s where each circumstance is different. Witholding food and water, if that’s all a person needs to live aside from routine medical care, is not acceptable. Where the confusion and difficulty lie is in situations where a person is in such a state of dementia that a feeding tube cannot be maintained, i.e. they keep pulling it out.

I think the letter writer in the OP is misguided about how to address the problem of suffering in terminal patients. Efforts should be directed towards relieving the suffering rather than actively hastening their death.

“Helping” a person to die is a chilling concept, especially if the decision is removed from the person or family through the Nationalization of health care (which is a different subject altogether).

Why should you think I misguided towards this imperative issue on Euthanasia ?

I think the letter writer in the OP is misguided about how to address the problem of suffering in terminal patients.

Check out this article parl.gc.ca/information/library/prbpubs/919-e.htm

Do you actually think I support this ?

 

[Newbie2]

You lost me. Did you write the letter to the editor or do you agree with the writer’s sentiments?

 

[centurionguard]

You lost me. Did you write the letter to the editor or do you agree with the writer’s sentiments?

Of course I don’t support it in any shape of form. I’m rather angered by it.

I submitted this writer’s story because it is so prevalent in today’s
Canadian hospitals which really stirs me inside. And no I’m not the OP of the writers letter.

 

[bpbasilphx]

If you believe, “You shall do no murder” is non-negotiable, there’s nothing to retrospect on.

 

[edwest2]

No serious retrospection is needed. Just a list of facts.

Already, in the 1980s, the patient or guardian had the option of a “slow code” or “no code.” The slow code gave the patient time to die or live, and after a given amount of time, there would be medical intervention. The no code meant no medical intervention and the patient would either die or survive.

The Church teaches that the dignity of the human person is sacred from conception until natural death. The two scenarios are already in place, and would likely lead to natural death or the patient would be aided to recover after his crisis.

New pain medication is superior to the old. I think people really need to ask themselves why they would support killing someone. Nobody wants pain and suffering but they are part of life.

Peace,
Ed

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

Sadly enough, I live in a state that just passed the eqivalent of Oregon’s “Death with Dignity” act. I was working with my church to fight this bill as hard as we all could, and it was still legalized. I have to admit, taking part in the fight, and hearing the stories of the legal murder done, and also the ABUSES that have come with the law, makes me sick. I’ve had to really pull back from the whole scene, because it was a truly devastating blow. It’s hard to have faith in humanity at all when you live in a state that openly preys on the most defenseless of our society: the dying and the unborn.

 

[Newbie2]

Of course I don’t support it in any shape of form. I’m rather angered by it.

I submitted this writer’s story because it is so prevalent in today’s
Canadian hospitals which really stirs me inside. And no I’m not the OP of the writers letter.

OK.

Why should you think I misguided towards this imperative issue on Euthanasia ?

Check out this article parl.gc.ca/information/library/prbpubs/919-e.htm

Do you actually think I support this ?

No, I was commenting on the letter-to-the-editor writer.

 

[centurionguard]

No serious retrospection is needed. Just a list of facts.

Already, in the 1980s, the patient or guardian had the option of a “slow code” or “no code.” The slow code gave the patient time to die or live, and after a given amount of time, there would be medical intervention. The no code meant no medical intervention and the patient would either die or survive.

The Church teaches that the dignity of the human person is sacred from conception until natural death. The two scenarios are already in place, and would likely lead to natural death or the patient would be aided to recover after his crisis.

New pain medication is superior to the old. I think people really need to ask themselves why they would support killing someone. Nobody wants pain and suffering but they are part of life.

Peace,
Ed

]No serious retrospection is needed. Just a list of facts.

Perhaps the word Retrospection might have been a slight typo error as per original post and in the Post Heading. But the more accurate term would have been Introspection more applicable. Still the main theme impact and thrust of the matter should have been understood. Most in the Catholic Church would give Euthanasia little serious thought through the faculty of introspection anyways.

 

[centurionguard]

I think there should be much retrospection from a Christian setting on Morality Ethics when people consider Euthanasia as an option in government and private hospitals.
Just how much leniency does the Catholic Church give on this topic ? My guesstimate would be none.

I was reading an article in my local newspapers editorial section this morning which reads as follows…

 

[centurionguard]

Perhaps the word Retrospection might have been a slight typo error as per original post and in the Post Heading. But the more accurate term would have been Introspection more applicable. Still the main theme impact and thrust of the matter should have been understood. Most in the Catholic Church would give Euthanasia little serious thought through the faculty of introspection anyways.

 

[johngh]

If the person is not brain dead and decides to end their own life, it is suicide. If the person is brain dead and the family decides, it’s murder. I really don’t see how you can get around those simple facts.

A person who is depressed and decides to kill themselves does so because they feel they don’t have a high enough quality of life. Will we start saying that is ok too? Will we one day have suicide clinics where unhappy people will go to “die with dignity”?

 

[centurionguard]

If the person is not brain dead and decides to end their own life, it is suicide. If the person is brain dead and the family decides, it’s murder. I really don’t see how you can get around those simple facts.

A person who is depressed and decides to kill themselves does so because they feel they don’t have a high enough quality of life. Will we start saying that is ok too? Will we one day have suicide clinics where unhappy people will go to “die with dignity”?

The Church does give an ample certain amount of credit to Doctors and their diagnoses.

In the case of a (“Brain Dead”) person as you described and with every exhaustive medical consideration given the Quality of Life is eroded beyond scientific capabilities. Their are priest who will stand by families and give advice and call the situation a respectable regrettable loss. In this case it’s not merciful killing at all. Many catholic families sign a do not resuscitate order for loved ones who are certain to die in compliance with Church laws and secular legal laws. My father signed a Do Not resuscitate order with his wife present in compliance with Church laws overseen by a priest. He died of a heart attack peacefully without need of the Do Not resuscitate order.
I watched the ventilator life support being unhooked as the Nurses at his bedside pronounced him deceased.

 

[Langdell]

The Church does give an ample certain amount of credit to Doctors and their diagnoses.

In the case of a (“Brain Dead”) person as you described and with every exhaustive medical consideration given the Quality of Life is eroded beyond scientific capabilities. Their are priest who will stand by families and give advice and call the situation a respectable regrettable loss. In this case it’s not merciful killing at all. Many catholic families sign a do not resuscitate order for loved ones who are certain to die in compliance with Church laws and secular legal laws. My father signed a Do Not resuscitate order with his wife present in compliance with Church laws overseen by a priest. He died of a heart attack peacefully without need of the Do Not resuscitate order.

Thanks for posting this. My sister and I recently signed a DNR for our mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease and recently had to be moved to a skilled-nursing facility. (I have a durable power of attorney for her.) It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. When my mother was still lucid, she signed an advance medical directive (i.e., a “living will”) using a form promulgated by the local Archbishop. When the nursing home asked our opinion on a DNR in accordance with my mother’s advance directive, I researched the Church’s teaching on it, thought about it very carefully, and discussed it with my sister and the nursing-home social worker. (Our father is deceased.) It was a sad thing to have to do, but we don’t want her to suffer through “extreme medical efforts” (intubation, etc.) once the irreversible process of dying has begun.

.

 

[Shredderbeam]

If the person is not brain dead and decides to end their own life, it is suicide. If the person is brain dead and the family decides, it’s murder. I really don’t see how you can get around those simple facts.

A person who is depressed and decides to kill themselves does so because they feel they don’t have a high enough quality of life. Will we start saying that is ok too? Will we one day have suicide clinics where unhappy people will go to “die with dignity”?

I don’t see why suicide in certain circumstances (long term suffering with no prospect for recovery) should be illegal.

 

[centurionguard]

Thanks for posting this. My sister and I recently signed a DNR for our mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease and recently had to be moved to a skilled-nursing facility. (I have a durable power of attorney for her.) It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. When my mother was still lucid, she signed an advance medical directive (i.e., a “living will”) using a form promulgated by the local Archbishop. When the nursing home asked our opinion on a DNR in accordance with my mother’s advance directive, I researched the Church’s teaching on it, thought about it very carefully, and discussed it with my sister and the nursing-home social worker. (Our father is deceased.) It was a sad thing to have to do, but we don’t want her to suffer through “extreme medical efforts” (intubation, etc.) once the irreversible process of dying has begun.

.

Interesting. I think we as Catholics as well as society owe an awfully lot of great dignity to the dying which is a most integral part of life as is someone being born into this world.
Of course many have natural fears and cannot bear to witness loved ones dying and sadly shrug off this dignified intregal part of our lives.

 

[centurionguard]

I don’t see why suicide in certain circumstances (long term suffering with no prospect for recovery) should be illegal.

Mercy Killing and Suicide is no way justified in the Catholic Church
It may considering circumstances attributed to secular medical laws in the United states and Canada but it certainly doesn’t give it Moral Ethical justification by the Catholic Churches laws nor God’s.