Posted on 09/30/2007 10:01:27 AM PDT by wagglebee
Note the quotes:
That came directly from a google search of the organization referenced in the title article of the thread and tells us that this stalwart crusader sold out to a larger organization with a broader mission.
When all the tickets are sold, the line to buy will go away.
But she went outside to set her butt down before her last butt - before her butt was set in that great ashtray in the sky forever, does that make it any better, but?
Can something be melancholy and macabre at the same time? I felt that reading this.
I think John Paul II had it about right. The when should be in the Great Puppeteers hands whenever possible.
Good description.
That's not the intention. I questioned this before I got into hospice....because I was also wary about the Terry Schiavo thing.
The drugs only progress as the pain does. The Dr's don't start them out on strong meds. If Tylenol helps... that's what they use. When that stops helping...they may move up to Vicodin or a combination of the two. The hard drugs are only used towards the end... when the patient is actively dying and the pain has increased considerably.
The point is... you're not there to kill them.... just make them comfortable through the process.
Our Docs... unlike the Schiavo fiasco... would never dream of pulling a feeding tube on a viable patient...or any patient we admitted with one. If they did... I'd be outta there.
He sounds like a wonderful person. I am sorry that he died in such an awful way. What a shame. My mother died a similar death from brain cancer. 2 1/2 years of chemo and radiation, she deteriorated slowly and lost control of almost everything but her brain. She had horrible pain, and they never could get ahead of it, even when hospice came in. I have never felt so helpless.
It is good to know there are some old hippies out there. It was a little before my time, but I remember seeing them and thinking how cool their lives must be.
The key is her desire to be in charge. This woman was not in danger of being tortured to death by terrorists, nor was she likely to live many more days (not weeks, days). She and other people taking this path may be saving their loved ones the cost of extensive life support care and are for sure avoiding less suffering they perceive in their future.
At the heart of the euthanasia movement is the desire to be in charge and not try to face the issue of Whose universe is this? Oh, the dead-soul pushers of this out will serve platitudes of god's mercy in allowing this, or god has no desire for us to suffer uselessly, but they have no close relationship with the God Who chose to suffer the cross for our sanctification and Who witnessed the suffering of His martyrs and welcomed them into exultation. When man/woman cannot resolve the notion of suffering and why it happens, they are not likely to embrace any of it if they can 'be in charge'.
What is telling in this lopsided recounting of her last five hours is the lack of speculation as to what was happening to her soul/spirit during that coma:
1) Could she have been in utter torment, facing the sudden realization that there really is life after life and she had just sealed a fate worse than the suffering she sought to 'be master over'?
2) Could she on the other hand have been in a state of intensive learning, where Jesus was relating to her the things she could have sought even to her last breath and left this phase of life with an entirely better headstart on the next?
3) Or could she have been merely dying, jerking away into oblivion, gone forever from time and space and reality of any kind?
Christopher Hitchens and professor Dawkins would be partial to the last. But in the last analysis, it might be that she squandered a last chance for sanctification'. Christians like myself, tearing up as we read the tragedy of this woman's illustrated unbelief hope for the second of the above, but fear the first for her. ...
Yes, unbelief, for she chose to 'be in control' at the very time when she should have been submitting to the will of her Creator and God, by anticipating meeting face to face her Savior. And why would I assert that?... Because she proved her unbelief by demanding the ultimate measure of 'be in control'.
I think God was pretty clear that he is God, and we are not. Is he unknowable - no way. Is he a mystery - absolutely.
It is not our job to decide who will be saved and who won’t. We are given salvation through Jesus because God is a very forgiving God. God will forgive those who are too afraid to face a long painful death, as he forgives all of our other sins. It takes all of my energy to concentrate on my own sins. I fail to see value in judging those who have already been judged by God himself.
Fortunately they are not in charge of salvation and forgiveness. Maybe some of them have never seen how horrible and painful a death from cancer can be. Others I am sure just want to make themselves out to be better Christians than this woman or others that opt for this way of death. As Christians I do understand that we are to submit to God’s will, which might include pain and suffering in death. I also know that God is very familiar with our weakness and inability to live up to our responsibilities. He loves and forgives us anyway.
I have a dear friend who has been fighting cancer for 8 years. She’s now 36. She has truly fought, and fought hard. When first diagnosed she was sent to a top notch cancer treatment center and they told her they could treat it but not remove it. And that it will crop up again sometime, somewhere. And it has. Every time they zap one place, it’s in another. Pancreas, intestines, liver, lungs. They’ve done everything, mulitple surgeries, radiation, radiation seeds, ports, chemo, more chemo, experiental chemo, meds...
There is no dignity in having to have your friends or husband wipe your rear end. No dignity in adult diapers. There is no hope in being doped up to the eyeballs and still writhing in pain. Not one of us wants to see her die and yet none of us want to see her live like this. If we truly submitted to ‘God’s will’, none of us would take chemo or radiation or blood pressure meds or monitor our cholesterol or aspirin therapy. Or surgery.
She is dying, she isn’t giving anyone hope (which is a huge burden to place on a dying woman anyway, as if God decided to cause her a huge amount of pain to teach the rest of us something) and the only thing that all the treatments have done is prolong her death. In the beginning, she felt she had to do everything she could but now she just wants to rest. In peace. It’s a mean spirited person who thinks that is wrong of her.
Thank you for sharing your insights!
I agree completely with you, and disagree with all the sanctimonious BS from most of the other posters. This lady made the decision that was right for her, and I understand completely why she made it. It isn’t the right decision for everyone, but she was entitled to control her fate, to the extent that any of us can control it.
You wrote: “If we truly submitted to ‘God’s will’, none of us would take chemo or radiation or blood pressure meds or monitor our cholesterol or aspirin therapy. Or surgery.”
_________________
My response: Well said and I agree. But one thing I’ve never understood — why do people who believe in an afterlife not look forward to dying? After all, most people believe they will live eternally in heaven, where their “existence” will be ideally pleasant. Shouldn’t true believers look forward to death?
God Bless her.
I pray that she is now free of pain and with her God.
Then one last cigarette break on her favorite sitting stone next to the parking lot.
No cheers, unfortunately.
I have to tell you — that was absolutely hysterical.
Here’s my favorite part:
“The skeleton form of a woman with a dirty-grey mist inside was talking to Jesus. In shock, I listened to her. Decayed flesh hung by shreds from her bones, and, as it burned, it fell off into the bottom of the pit. Where her eyes had once been were now only empty sockets. She had no hair.” And then something about worms coming out of her.
A person has to be pretty stupid to believe this kind of silliness.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.