Posted on 01/18/2009 9:16:06 AM PST by wagglebee
Sophie Pandit breaks into a smile as she recalls a nervous meeting with Julie Walters last summer. The actress plays Sophie’s mother in a new film and they met after Sophie was invited on set during rehearsals. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t do your mum with a Brummie accent,’ Julie had said mischievously, by way of an ice-breaker.
Sophie knew her mother would have approved. Throughout her life, Anne Turner was known for unleashing her wicked sense of humour to diffuse tension in difficult situations. This never stopped, even in the hours before her death.
Last summer, Sophie, 44, herself an actress, her brother Edward, 42, and sister Jessica, 40, were approached by the BBC, who wanted to make a film about their mother’s extraordinary final years of life.
Three years ago next Saturday, Anne Turner, a 66-year-old retired doctor from Bath, made the journey to the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic in Zurich to take her own life after being diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy – a rare, incurable degenerative condition similar to Parkinson’s that gradually destroys nerve cells in the parts of the brain controlling eye movements, breathing and muscle co-ordination, eventually leading to paralysis, making the sufferer totally reliant on others.
‘This was a future Mum refused to accept and on the day she was diagnosed, she told me of her intention to commit suicide,’ says Sophie.
‘We were horrified and deeply upset but as a doctor, Mum was under no illusions about the outcome of her illness. She was a fiercely independent woman and she could not face losing that independence or being physically reliant on others.’
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Curious, the statement — ‘Since it is illegal in Britain, those who choose suicide have to cut their lives short early, as they have to be healthy enough to travel.’
It is all so wrong. Life is not ours to take, not at the beginning, not at the end.
She would have benefited, specially by uniting her suffering to the Will of God.
Pro-Life bump
I hope that is not the point this person was making - boiling it all down to saving money! God help us!
This is how government healthcare saves money... see the little pill Germany gives old people
Very true.
Our Lord either has a perfect plan for our lives from the moment of conception until the moment of death or He doesn't.
If He DOES have a perfect plan, then this INCLUDES whatever suffering we endure. If He DOES NOT have a plan, then He IS NOT God.
His instructions are very clear on how to deal with the sick and suffering, so clear that He tells us of the rewards or punishment based on what we decide to do:
31 And when the Son of man shall come in his majesty, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit upon the seat of his majesty. 32 And all nations shall be gathered together before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. 34 Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in:
36 Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me. 37 Then shall the just answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, and fed thee; thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38 And when did we see thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and covered thee? 39 Or when did we see thee sick or in prison, and came to thee? 40 And the king answering, shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.
41 Then he shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave me not to drink. 43 I was a stranger, and you took me not in: naked, and you covered me not: sick and in prison, and you did not visit me. 44 Then they also shall answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to thee? 45 Then he shall answer them, saying: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.
46 And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting.
-- Matthew 25:31-46
That is the point he has made before.
we agree. And PSP,,what she had is horrible beyond anything. YOu end up on a respirator.
I do think that if one makes this kind of decision, one shouldn’t involve one’s family in it if possible. It is one thing to face it and another to involve others.
The sad thing is if it is done, it has to be done early. At a certain point a person cannot do it alone. And then otheers start imposing their ideas.
I think that every person has an absolute right to do with their body as they wish as long as they know that any consequences are theirs. Smoke, drink, eat like a pig.
Prove that there can be joy amongst suffering? My son was killed suddenly and I was devastated. Yet, I was warmed by the care and sympathy extended to me by complete strangers. One person, who was in the area where my son was killed, heard the ambulance siren and said a prayer for that unknown person. When he found out that person was a child, he looked up our name and address and wrote a note explaining that he had prayed for my son and was so sorry that our boy had died apart from his parents.
Can you imagine how that made me feel? That at the moment my son was dying, a moment I was completely unaware of, some stranger who believes, was petitioning heaven for my son's restoration to health, or safe passage to Heaven?
It touched me deeply. How much did it touch that gentleman as well? How much more compassion is there in the world, as I share that story and what it meant to me to the dozens of people I have shared it with?
Yes, just as during 911, we saw the worst of some people. We also saw the best of others. They often go together.
Thank you so much for sharing this touching experience with us.
Yes, you are correct about that and offer you the exact same thought. Nice when we agree.
I have a condition I don’t even know the name of.
I sometimes enter a state of total paralysis somewhere between sleep and consciousness. I feel the pain of whatever position I am in and am semi-aware of all that is going on around me but cannot move a single muscle or change my state of awareness.
I can be screaming and flailing inside trying to change my position or condition but to no avail. Only an external stimulus, a very loud noise or someone shaking me, will bring me out to full consciousness.
I have found myself in the state described many times for anywhere from a few minutes to near two hours. If diagnosed with a disease that would eventuate in such a condition I would seek to inflict sufficient trauma to this body that it would release my soul to whatever my God has awaiting me on the other side.
Far be it from me to decide what is right or wrong for anyone else or for anyone else to decide what is right or wrong for me.
Curious to follow this thread but will have to wait until after church.
The can give that answer and they do. ANd this woman was not a Christian. Would you impose that on her?
Narcolepsy? Is that what you have and the paralysis is very close to sleep paralysis,,where you wake up and cannot move or talk but are paralyzed. You are seeing an MD? Neurologist?
"Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual."
--Thomas Jefferson to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819.
"That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of The United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms..."
- Samuel Adams, Massachusettes Constitutional Convention, 1788.
The purpose of the State is to punish those who do injury to other PEOPLE, not to tell us what we may or may not do.
This woman had a right to follow her own conscience, and I am not arrogant enough to second-guess God's reaction to it.
However, if uncertain of God's Will doesn't it make more sense to err on the side of life?
You may take something back to the store and get your money back, but how would you dream of refunding the price paid for your life, the blood of Christ?The life paid for by the blood of Christ is eternal life- you know, the next one.
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