Marshall Mendonza wrote:
> Taking Venita's arguement that a woman is the master of her own body, should
> we then accept suicide and euthanasia? After all in suicide a person takes
> his own life. I believe that in a civilised progressive society where life
> is valued and respected and ethical values are held high, a person in
> distress would be treated in a compassionate and humane manner with care and
> concern for his/her well being.
Marshall,
You touch on a sensitive topic.
Here in the west, there is something known as a living will. Essentially, you
give the
power of attorney to someone who you trust to make the decisions for you when
you are
still alive but unable to make life saving decisions yourself. Before one signs
the power
of attorney, s/he will give explicit instructions to the attorney on what to do
in each medical
circumstance should the person be incapacitated.
A prime example is when your attorney has to inform the medical practitioner if
s/he should
try or not try and and revive you after a heart attack or coma.
While in primary convent school, the nuns told me that there was a heaven, a
hell and purgatory.
40 years later, purgatory has been taken off that list. If I live long enough,
hell too will be taken
off. I can understand the concept of heaven. I just cannot understand the
concept of God creating
hell.
As far as I am concerned, I am sure I have lived a good life, following in
words and action, the
footsteps of Christ. If I am to develop say, cancer, and I have six months of
agony to live, I would
prefer to take the quicker way out as I don't believe in suffering.
I also do not believe in imposing my beliefs on others. If the church teaches
you not to accept
suicide or euthanasia, so be it. When a person of sound mind and body decides
for himself what
has to be done in the future should a medical situation arise, I think it is
the responsibility of
the secular authorities to respect those wishes.
On the other hand, it seems that I am reading more often nowadays about
distressed people taking
their own lifes. The main reason is usually economic or emotional problems.
These are areas
where the religious authorities are not experts. I am more than willing to have
my taxes increased
just so that the state or province can set up secular councillors to talk those
in crises out of their
temporary problems.
Unfortunately, I am in the minority. Every time a political party recommends
more taxes for more
services, it usually looses the next elections. People want the state to treat
suicidal people with care
and compassion and, at the same time, do not want to pay for the same.
This, I believe, is hell on earth.
Mervyn1097Lobo
On another note, when I first arrived in Toronto, 20 years ago, I went down to
the government
office to get my drivers licence. The officer in charge asked me if I would
like to sign an organ
donor card. It took me a second to decide that, as a good Catholic, I should be
buried in one piece.
Then I thought for a moment longer and came to the conclusion that I would have
no problems
accepting any organ from someone else in order to survive. So I took inventory.
No doctor would
touch my liver or kidneys because they had been abused for years. My heart had
been broken,
nay, shattered a long time ago. The only body part of any value would have been
my eyes.
It then struck me that, at that age, the most likely cause of death would have
been a car accident.
I did not sign that organ donor card as I felt that no one deserved the eyes of
a person who did not
see the other car coming in the first place :-)
I now have signed my entire body over to science. Some 25 year old will have
fun on my remains
while s/he is in medical collage. There is the possibility, just the
possibility, that the knowledge
gained would help the medical professional save a life later.
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