Posted on 02/15/2017 2:55:38 PM PST by Olog-hai
Thank you for that description of your service to the dying. It was spot on. I’ve done the pastoral care in the Hospice situations for 26 years. Believers usually pass peacefully and with certainty. My job is to bring what comfort I can regardless of their beliefs. Yes, it is rewarding service.
The Bible tells us to do many things that are not and indeed can not be encoded in law.
There is no way to make coveting against the law and yet it is right there in Exodus 20:17. It says that we should love the Lord with all our heart and love our neighbor as our self but there is no way to encode that in law either.
There have been several attempts to encode a law against suicide. They have never worked because in the end people do have the right to kill themselves.
Where suicide is against the law people tend to have strange "accidents" instead so it is not recorded as suicide.
It was my sad obligation to attend the funeral of a young man who, "slipped off a ladder and became entangled in a rope". The law against suicide did nothing but prevent him from getting help with his depression. If he had been committed as a suicide risk he would have promptly been arrested. Being in jail does little to help a depressed person.
Where law has worked is that they do not have the right to drag other people into it.
“There have been several attempts to encode a law against suicide. They have never worked...”
I bet if they made the punishment the execution of your next of kin - THAT would get people to stop committing suicide.
Those who are at the end of their rope mentally, emotionally or physically.
Those who are too immature to understand that the down turn is temporary and the sun will shine again.
Those who want other people to suffer even if they have to die to do it.
For the third type your "law" would be a gift.
Besides on what legal or religious grounds would you basis this kind of law?
It was a joke - trying to stop suicide by killing others.
And yes - it would be a blessing to those left behind. Our pastor’s Dad killed himself when the pastor was just a child. He spent a long time wondering if somehow he caused it, and of course growing up without a father.
It is a grim subject that sometimes requires humor even if it is very dark.
Those left behind always suffer which is why, for me personally, suicide is not an option. But then again I have not suffered days of agonizing, unrelenting physical pain. It would wear at you.
There is no right to kill yourself, merely because it’s not preventable; that’s a red herring. All sins are not preventable except by the one who commits them; the only difference with suicide is that the perpetrator has already punished himself. That is why the Founding Fathers of the USA stressed private morality so much.
There is a right to self defense even if the Bible tells us to turn the other cheek.
There is a right to life even if the Bible tells us that there is no greater love then to lay down your life.
And there is a right to be heard even if the Bible tells us there are times when we should be silent.
Citing private morality (a foundational pillar of the USA) is not “dragging religion into what is a civil matter”; indeed, the First Amendment makes religion a civil matter via the Free Exercise Clause, as does the Tenth Amendment. Second red herring on your part, with all due respect, and a left-wing tactic. There simply is no more “right” to kill oneself any more than there is a “right” to kill another.
And laying down one’s life for others is not suicide with a “right” thereof—third red herring. Those guilty of slaying the one who laid down his/her life are the guilty parties, and of murder.
And I mentioned nothing about self defense. Of course there is a right to same; it is not murder to kill those who would try to murder you. Fourth red herring.
And I don’t know what you mean about the “right to be heard”. One may be heard, and then judged on what is heard, just as King David judged the Amalekite who murdered King Saul once heard.
Just to reword the last sentence of the first paragraph: There is no “right” to murder oneself any more than there is a “right” to murder another. There is a dichotomy between killing and murder, the mistranslation of Hebrew “ratsach” notwithstanding.
Thanks for that, discussions about who decides and how things are organized are very important.
Hospice has been used with a number of family members and friends here too. No gubamint official was involved, the family under the direction of trained personnel was assisted in easing the passing of loved ones at home. In almost every case, it has been a cancer or heart related passing.
It hurt to see them go, but it was some comfort that they passed with family there and pain was minimized as much as possible.
Wifey and I have both opted to keep us going as long as possible.
Everyone has the right to murder themselves. They just don’t have the right to involve others in their act of murder.
Power does not equal right. With all due respect.
Consider Judas Iscariot’s suicide. Was that really his right?
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