Posted on 07/02/2007 7:19:54 PM PDT by LA Woman3
I lived in Michigan when the television news channels played the videos of Dr. Jack Kevorkian assisting his terminally ill patients nonstop, day in and day out.
It was clear, as the parties involved spilled out their hearts and souls in the most dynamic of intense emotions, that the good doctor was responding sincerely, thoughtfully, professionally and with deep compassion to those seeking to end their agony.
You will find no man who more than I is dedicated to the self-evident truth that human life is sacred.
I value, respect and completely cherish the precious gift of life that God has bestowed upon each of us.
However, quality of life is pivotal to autonomy, individuality and independence.
If ever there were a part of life that government should never tread upon, it is decisions we each make about our quality of life and the choices we we make about extending or ending it.
The exhaustive shopping list of checks and balances, the thorough scrutiny that the patients, families and Dr. Kevorkian went through during those instances where he assisted in terminating their suffering, could by no stretch of the imagination constitute an indicator of a "slippery slope" toward convenient suicide.
Allegations to the contrary are in overt defiance of the facts and are pure hogwash. That a bureaucrat or another person would meddle in such personal choice is unforgivable and surely un-American.
(Excerpt) Read more at wacotrib.com ...
Love the Nuge, but he has a blind spot here:
How does “quality of life” extend to, say, wild game?
Leave it up to the states.
‘not terminally ill’
Your beyond left field with that statement.
When the doctor came to see us before his rounds, none of my family would say anything about it. As the doctor was leaving, I said what we had agreed to do. I was hoping that my mother or siblings would have done it. No one wanted to say it to the doctor. So I felt like I had to.
My father passed away on a Sunday and we buried him on Thursday.
My oldest brother was one of 10 Master Chiefs on the USS Iowa, at the time. The ship pulled out for the Caribbean on Monday. The #2 gun turret exploded on Thursday. My brother would have been in turret 2 and would have been killed, if he hadn’t have been on emergency leave. My uncle, and all of us, believed that Dad slipped away so that Bobby would live.
I constantly catch myself wishing that I could talk to him more. I would have loved to see him play with my sons. Dad was always crazy about babies and children.
I always felt that I was a disappointment to my Dad. But while he was in the hospital, we talked liked we had never talked before. And that has always been special to me ever since.
It isn't a good thing to choose to arbitrarily destroy your own form. But the idea that God would actually get angry about someone who comes to the natural end of their temporary form's existence and decides to help the process along sounds like another one of those many human-invented rules that got inserted into the Bible, promulgated by the priestly caste whose primary concern was the loss of revenue. ;)
If you actually query these people doing the assisted suicide thing, I think you’ll discover a large percentage believe in some form of re-incarnation/afterlife and that they are just moving to the next position on their individual wheel.
For your Moral Absolutes list.
If Ted wants to die, then let Ted off himself. However, don’t allow the government to give doctors the power to kill people. It’s murder, plain and simple. Once you allow that, the government will start making the decisions for those that can’t afford to pay. Especially look out if universal health care comes along. Over three thousand have been offed in Netherlands, and they weren’t even able to consent. Be careful what you wish for.
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