The sniper warfare on this thread is hilarious!
But I’m still left wondering...
One of the majestic things about the RC Church is its immutability. But sometimes, very quietly, it does change, in response to our development of more human approaches to human suffering. Our evolution as a species. (They’ve just abolished “limbo”, right? That always seemed an extraordinarily cruel concept, anyway.)
So my question is, an elderly person decides, no feeding tubes, no drugs, I will gracefully accept death. Ok, that’s clearly right and natural and the will of God.
But a 25 year old with a unspeakable, and always fatal disease cannot make the same decision?
What is the age cutoff thing here? That seems kind of fraudulent to me, especially in light of the “immutability” of Cathlic teaching.
Maybe it’s time for the Church to reconsider the right to die?
There obviously cannot be an age cutoff point. Each case, like each human before God, must be adjudicated on its own merits.
That 25 year old with a fatal disease? What of it? MS? MD? MLS? These are long term diseases. The Pope had long term illnesses and was a beacon to the world in how to live with progressing terminal illnesses. Maybe the illnesses are some of God’s testing for us.
I think that it’s more about how you journey through life. When God calls one home, I doubt that He gets too many busy signals, but the methodology of His calls may vary from person to person. Both of my parents died of cancer and in each case, they knew when they were going to die before it happened and they accepted it and prepared to meet God. My grandfather knew it about a week before it happened to him.
They didn’t bring it on; it was there and it was going to happen. A far cry from killing one’s self for whatever motivation.