Posted on 12/23/2001 6:26:24 AM PST by Mopp4
A terminally ill boy had his dying wish granted in Australia this month, but ethicists are still at odds over whether it was the right thing to do.
The wish was not for a trip to Disneyland or to meet a famous sports star. Instead, the 15-year-old wanted to lose his virginity before he died of cancer. The boy, who remains anonymous but was called Jack by the Australian media, did not want his parents to know about his request. Because of his many years spent in the hospital, he had no girlfriend or female friends.
Jack died last week, but not before having his last wish granted. Without the knowledge of his parents or hospital staff, friends arranged an encounter with a prostitute outside of hospital premises. All precautions were taken, and the organizers made sure the act was fully consensual. The issue has sparked fierce debate over the legal and ethical implications of granting the boy's request. By law, Jack was still a child, and the woman involved could in theory face charges for having sex with a minor. The debate was sparked by the hospital's child psychologist, who wrote a letter to "Life Matters," a radio show in which academics debate ethical and moral dilemmas. The scenario was presented in the abstract, with no details about the boy's identity.
"He had been sick for quite a long period, and his schooling was very disrupted, so he hadn't had many opportunities to acquire and retain friends, and his access to young women was pretty poor," the psychologist said recently in an interview with Australia's Daily Telegraph newspaper. "But he was very interested in young women and was experiencing that surge of testosterone that teenage boys have." Hospital staff initially wanted to pool donations to pay for a prostitute, but the ethical and legal implications prevented them from doing so. The psychologist presented members of the clergy with the dilemma and found no clear answer. "It really polarized them," he said. "About half said, 'What's your problem?' And the other half said [it] demeans women and reduces the sexual act to being just a physical one."
Dr. Stephen Leeder, dean of medicine at the University of Sydney and a "Life Matters" panelist, said the issue was a difficult one. "I pointed out that public hospitals operated under the expectation that they would abide by state law," he said. "While various things doubtless are done that are at the edge of that, it's important the public has confidence that the law will be followed." Jack's psychologist, who works with children in palliative care, said the desire was driven in part by a need for basic human contact. "In a child dying over a long period of time, there is often a condition we call 'skin hunger,'" he said. The terminally ill child yearns for non-clinical contact because "mostly when people touch them, it's to do something unpleasant, something that might hurt." Leeder called the diagnosis "improbable." Judy Lumby, the show's other panelist and the executive director of the New South Wales College of Nursing, argued that the details as presented made it abundantly clear the boy's wish ought to be granted. "I said that I would try my darndest as a nurse to do whatever I could to make sure his wish came true," she said. "I just think we are so archaic in the way we treat people in institutions. Certainly, if any of my three daughters were dying, I'd do whatever I could, and I'm sure that you would, too." National Post
Oh great. So we should be able to indulge any fantasy we want because we're dying? Well I got a news flash for ya ace. We're all dying. Your philosophy is the same one that's been around for hundreds of years. Eat drink and be merry, for tommorrow we die.
I can't believe that there are people on a conservative board advocating a Porky's mentality for kids.
What's stopping you from banging a prostitute? You're dying too ya know. You could actually die before the kid does.
Oh...wanted to let you know that you neglected to paste "illegal" in there too..
The mutations are inheritable, but cancer doesn't start until a cell collects all of the necessary mutations. Some of these can be caused by exposure to mutagens or UV light or other radiation. But kids haven't had much chance for exposure to these things - those are for adults, long term smokers, or people who have tanned themselves for decades. Hence, childhood cancer is nearly always genetic. It is comparatively rare, on a statistical basis, that a fertilized egg could be mutation free, meaning that the parents have no culpability, but all of the necessary mutations occur during childhood.
If this kid's parents were still supporting him and paying his medical bills, these other people didn't have a right to interfere in the family. What you do with your own kid might be one thing, but you have no rights at all in my family deciding behind my back what you will do with my child. A child is a child until they are self-sufficient or can be which is about 18.
It surprises me more that they believe non-relatives can interfere with the parents' decisions for their own child. The people interfering were not relatives of any kind of the child's, they really had no business at all doing what they did. The parents have every right to sue them and take them to court.
There either "is" a God who has these rules, or there "is not" such a God. There is NO gray area between the two. What you believe WILL NOT change the situation, it merely changes the result after your death. What I believe will not change the universe either.
But what I believe WILL CHANGE my condition after death.
Scholars have argued since before Babylon which religion is "right" ... and to date, only one Man has returned from the dead to tell us.
Now, the decision whether you (or I) live as required by His law, or in violation of that Law is your (or mine) to do. That's why you call it "faith" .... I cannot "prove" my faith to you, nor can I argue it's subtle points in a purely logically. Religious changes (in an adult) are called "conversion" for a reason. Religion is not, and cannot be ever, "argued" between two adults based on logic.
The morass of evil this boy sunk into (goaded by endless hours of immoral, sex-is-everything-in-life-there-is-nothing-else-important TV ? Likely.) may, or may not have, entombed him permanently. What is evil are the "friends" who assisted him in a crime, and (worse) in doing something sinful immediately before death. And THAT is evil. It may have been his choice, but it is still evil.
Did he "enjoy" his 3 seconds of climax? Maybe.
(Note to those who tell me "not to judge" the boy. Repeat: I'M not judging him, God is judging him.) I'm merely repeating the Law that He wrote.
So do you believe that fantasizing about stealing a pack of gum is the equivalent of the murder of a human being (in God's eyes)? Please enlighten me, theology isn't my strong point.
God is holy. Which simply means that God is totally sinless. Incapable of tolerating it. Incapable of putting up with it. My indulging in the fantasy is just as bad as doing it (Jesus taught that)...the worst human sin is as offensive as the least human sin to God.
It's like asking who you would like as a friend, a guy who punched you in the arm everyday, or a guy who whacks you with a 2x4 in the back of the head. The answer is neither.
Hey, as long as we're dumping the (Biblical) prohibition against sex outside marriage, why stop with "a little sensual fun with the opposite sex"? What if the boy had wanted to have sex with one of his male buddies, or his first cousin, or his dog? Why limit him to a mere prostitute? After all, he was going to die anyway. Why not let him enjoy as much "life" as he could?
An alternate view of the same facts…
Observe that Our Lord did not say "he who is without lust" or "he who has never fornicated," but "he who is without sin."
As you prepare to keep the Feast of the Nativity, search your own soul, are you really free from wrath? lust? gluttony?... If not, be silent, and be grateful that you are not afflicted as the young man is with a deadly disease. Be grateful for being given a sufficient measure of faith that you do not judge the pleasures of this world or the the flesh to be good things sufficient unto themselves, and pray that the Evil One will not overthrow your faith by raising up pride in your heart.
It was his last wish before he died. Good for him and let him rest in peace.
108 posted on 12/23/01 10:40 AM Pacific by My Favorite Headache
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