A Swiss Euthanasia Group Has Offered a Powerful Challenge to Catholics

The Catholic Herald (UK) ^ | 11/17/14 | Francis Phillips

[marshmallow]

A film presented by EXIT highlights the importance of offering solace to those who have lost the will to live

Anyone involved in the euthanasia debate in this country should watch a recently released YouTube film about the work of EXIT ADMD, a Swiss association which helps French-speaking Swiss residents to die. As Michael Cook describes it in his article on Saturday, it is about the “mysticism” of Swiss-assisted suicide and it is all the more powerful and persuasive because of it.

Unlike films about euthanasia made by the BBC in this country, there is nothing overtly strident or polemical about this film: no angry or agonised relations, no silent demonstrations outside Parliament, no interventions from pressure groups. It simply shows the work of the “accompagnateurs”, the escorts, of those individuals – they have to be suffering from an incurable illness, not merely depression – who have chosen to die. They cannot be related to the patient, nor can they benefit financially by their work. It is described by the president of the association, Dr Jerome Sobel, as a “vocation”. In a sense, they see themselves as angels of death.

The film raises two important questions: how do people who have no faith display instinctive religious feeling in a post-Christian world? And how do you distinguish this genuine compassion from Christian compassion? Philosopher and writer Alain de Botton has tried to interest people in his “church for atheists”; he has not without attracted many takers, understandably, as the idea is too abstract, too eccentric. But death isn’t abstract at all – especially when you are living on your own and slowly dying. EXIT ADMD understands this; they know death is a huge event and they take it very seriously, even reverently.

In an extraordinary shot of a meeting of....

[marshmallow]

Unlike films about euthanasia made by the BBC in this country, there is nothing overtly strident or polemical about this film: no angry or agonised relations, no silent demonstrations outside Parliament, no interventions from pressure groups. It simply shows the work of the “accompagnateurs”, the escorts, of those individuals – they have to be suffering from an incurable illness, not merely depression – who have chosen to die. It is described by the president of the association, Dr Jerome Sobel, as a “vocation”. In a sense, they see themselves as angels of death.

In an extraordinary shot of a meeting of the association, seated around a U-shaped table, as if they are participating in a strangely secularised Last Supper, Sobel tells the escorts that they “are no longer volunteers but priests.”

And that is what makes this the creepiest, most macabre thing I've ever seen.

[Nateman]

And how do you distinguish this genuine compassion from Christian compassion?

Rather insulting. Christian compassion can't be genuine? They must be liberals. They have the hubris part down pat.

[Salvation]

Anyone who helps with euthanasia is committing a grave (mortal) sin.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3228273/posts

[pepsionice]

A story from the regional press in Europe from January of this year.

A older Italian woman (widow, husband had been dead for twenty years)...in her eighties....had great health and no physical ailments. Her kids were all an hour away, and met up with her about every two weeks for dinner. She’d watched her friends and neighbors of decades pass on, and just got lonely. Some neighbor mentioned the Swiss option. After the Xmas holidays...the old gal went off to Switzerland with some cash, and signed up for her “package”.

Basically, they’d come and help ensure the event took place, a local mortuary would pick up the body, all paperwork would be taken care by the local city clerk, and a cremation facility would handle the body at the end. All packaged up with an urn, and delivered back to the family in Italy.

The family was furious at the courier and the delivery. Cops ended up writing up a report but it’s not illegal in Italy, and just became a filed report. That was it.

Here’s the plain truth....science and medicine have done wonderful things and extended our lives by another decade, and maybe even two decades. We don’t die of pneumonia anymore, or yellow fever....and food poisoning and heat exhaustion is now pretty rare. Some folks are living wonderful lives in their seventies, eighties, and nineties. Some aren’t living such great lives. Some have meager savings and are burning up at a faster rate than they expected. I’m not condoning the Swiss deal, but our society has created factors that weren’t around four or five decades ago.

[Alex Murphy]

....to care for the unborn child you have to care for the mother as well, throughout her pregnancy and after, those involved in anti-euthanasia pressure groups need to offer solace and companionship to those who have lost the will to live. Otherwise, as our critics point out, we are not really accompanying the dying (to translate the French word “accompagnateur”) in the way a Christian community should. We have to be prepared for the slow march of the secularised rites of death shown in this film and counter them vigorously with our Christian faith in the love of God, who alone knows when our time on earth is coming to an end.

I'm guessing this is the "powerful challenge" mentioned in the title.

...the mercy of the wicked is cruel.
-- Proverbs 12:10b

[Last Dakotan]

Only in the bizarro world of the Left can being forced to kill yourself be referred to as “dignity”.

[defconw]

I guess that they don't understand the concept of redemptive suffering either. It is amazing how people twist themselves into pretzels to justify their blood-lust. Saint JPII, Pray for Us!

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

“they have to be suffering from an incurable illness, not merely depression – who have chosen to die.”

Why not depression? Why not because you don’t feel like going to work today?

How about a “lean over” button on your alaarm clock, with a safety of course, in case you don’t want to get up today, just lean over....

Are we not rational beings capable of our own decisions....except on nationalizing healthcare of course, and gay marriage, ....

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

“She’d watched her friends and neighbors of decades pass on, and just got lonely. “

Here God, up your a**!, see you on the other side. Thanks.

[El Cid]

Job 14:14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

And the answer is yes. He will live again. An eternity with God and Christ in Heaven, or an eternity in hell.

Far be it from me to wag my finger at someone who is in incredible pain and/or mental anguish ... But Job waited. And I can't think of anyone who was in more pain and anguish than he.

Prayers to those who are moved by their pain to contemplate such actions - and that they are able to turn to Christ for His comfort and aid to get them through the storm.

[Sergio]

The film raises two important questions: how do people who have no faith display instinctive religious feeling in a post-Christian world?

Stopped reading right there. IIRC, there are more adherents of Christianity, than any other religion on earth.

[SpirituTuo]

People die of pnuemonia everyday!! I have seen it. It is not rare at all.

Regarding money, that is door through which much of this evil passes through. “We can’t afford to give an old (70+) woman chemo.” “We can’t afford having people living into their 90s.” “Maybe you don’t need that hip surgery, take a pain pill instead.” “These triplets mean I have to buy gallon jars of mayonnaise at Costco.” “I wouldn’t want my daughters burdened with a child.”

In each case, a person is assigned an economic value, with their death being a benefit to the living.

This is certainly neither dignified nor compassionate. It is greed, and the culture of death of death writ large.