My mother died 6 months after a stroke left her incapacitated. My Dad refused to pull the plug; my brothers and their wives were going ballistic. I have gone back and forth on the issue in my mind ever since. M. Scott Peck, author of “The Road Less Travelled” makes a heck of a case against assisted suicide in his book “Denial of the Soul”. He believes that with proper palliative care during the end of life, a person should, for the sake of their soul, live out that life to its natural end. I am inclined to agree. Sometimes it is not pretty but he maintains that sometimes suffering is essential for spiritual growth. We all like everything to be made neat and pretty; especially those things (like illness and death). We don’t want to face the reality of suffering; we don’t want to have to wipe the faces (and other parts) of our loved ones and console them as they wait for the pain meds to kick in. I am guessing we are denying ourselves as much or more than we are denying them by “putting them out of their pain” with a shot of too much medicine. But who am I to say?
>>I am guessing we are denying ourselves as much or more than we are denying them by “putting them out of their pain” with a shot of too much medicine. But who am I to say?<<
Who is anyone to say? My mom’s last words to the doctors were to let her go.
As I said, no matter how much we frame this as a “life” issue it is in the final analysis a single soul issue. We can’t change that with any amount of legislation nor prayer.
We are all custodians of our individual lives.