If Euthanasia were legal why would you be euthanized?

[mcarmichael]

I don't mean to encourage anyone but if I lost control of my bodily functions, unless I said otherwise I would prefer to die. Also instead of ever being catheterized, I would probably prefer death.

 

[mcarmichael]

It's legal some places.

 

[mcarmichael]

Fortunately for me with my excellent credit I likely will die in a ditch. Or I was thinking about it today, death by natural disaster is probably about as good as being mauled by a bear, a means of death I feel is highly underrated. Bears are super cute!

 

[LizaSymonenko]

Death will come when the time is right, in a manner deemed best for your salvation. While none of us wish to suffer, sometimes we need to suffer to gain humility, and repent of past errors.

It is better to suffer here, contemplating our lives, how we've acted towards others, what we've accomplished/or not, what we've said, what legacy we leave behind... and then try to apologize before we stand accused of these things.

Let me give you an example. I know a pharmacist who works inside a retail store. She is constantly busy, has little help, and is always stressed. They are not allowed to bring any bags in with them, not even their coats. They have no lunch break, and have to sneak a bite of something between answering the phones, or the counter... and when someone sees them chewing as they come up, they actually yell at them for eating. Even worse, they cannot use the restroom. This pharmacist has a part-time technician who is there 20 hours of the week. Well, the other 20 hours she is alone, and therefore cannot step out of the pharmacy to use the restroom. Work is so stressful. Prescriptions are called in, arrive via email, over the fax, and through the phone. Non-stop.

Now the pharmacists also do all the injections - flu, shingles, and now Covid. While stepping out to give a vaccine, the phone rings inside the pharmacy... they get dinged for not picking up the phone. It's just absolutely crazy environment to work in.

So... one day a woman comes up for her vaccine. The pharmacist doesn't even see her standing there because she is short statured, and she is busy in the back filling prescriptions. When she comes up to her the woman is angry that the pharmacist doesn't know her name. She yells at her, calls her a (female dog), and then actually takes the time to fill out a survey, giving her a 1/5 rating, and commenting that the pharmacist is incompetent and rude. When in fact, the pharmacist did nothing wrong... the woman was just angry. The pharmacist needed to explain to their manager what happened, fill out gobs of paperwork, etc. Her "review" will be impacted by this negative survey and comments.

This last week, that same woman came back, months after the initial encounter. She was kind, and sweet, and you'd not have known there had been an issue. The pharmacist assisted her and finished her order... and the woman just stood there and did not leave. The pharmacist asked if there was something else she could help her with (because in the pharmacist's head she is calculating how many prescriptions are lying on the counter behind her yet to fill in the next 20 minutes, the phone is ringing, and the next vaccine is scheduled in 5 minutes, and she really really has to pee)... the woman hesitates, and then says that she's been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. The pharmacist is shocked and kindly expresses her concern and hopes that she is able to beat this thing. The woman then says that she is sorry for all she had done to her. She is sorry for the bad survey and her harsh words... and that she realizes how stressful the job is and that the pharmacist really was doing her best.

She apologized ONLY because she was now suffering and had time to review what she had done with her life.

While nobody ever wishes to suffer, sometimes a bit of suffering brings us to our senses.

I rejoice at this woman's apology, and I pray the Lord grants her a recovery from this illness, because while Stage 4 is very bad, God can work miracles... and may He grant her healing of body, as He has granted her healing of soul.

 

[Bizzlebin]

I just want to touch on this quickly, because though you're not listed as Orthodox, I hope nothing I say will be "new" to anyone who is Orthodox. But there are a few things that utterly destroy us, our relationship with Jesus Christ, and completely violate creation itself. I call these the "big 3" (they're just different forms of the same sin of idol worship): sacrifice, euthanasia, and sex acts [with idols, demons, etc].

You've asked about item #2, and so here are a few reasons why it is beyond demonically evil. It is ultimately a form of sacrifice to something—all death, in a way, is, which is why we have to be so careful both about how we die and how others around us die. But it is more specifically a sacrifice against suffering, against the Cross, and against Christ Himself. It's an anti-sacrifice, an anti-sacrament, and a consecration of an anti-Eucharist ("eucharist" means thanksgiving). It is a denial that Christ's suffering and death have meaning, the rejection of what it means to be God's creation, and an ultimate selfish act in that it puts our so-called "sensibilities" (code for anti-theistic, humanistic religion) over even the existence of the "other".

So I hope that clears up some of the confusion. We have the blessing to kill for fur, for food, for safety, for sale, and for all sorts of reasons (most only apply to animal cases, but you get the idea); these are all normal, good, and well within Patristic teaching—and have *nothing* to do with euthanasia. But when death and non-existence become the "final solution" to God-created existence—including the suffering that Jesus Christ united to Himself—then we're in as foreign a territory as we could ever be; Hell, as we often imagine it, wouldn't do it justice. I don't speak hyperbolically here, but very literally: flee from euthanasia as if it were Satan himself coming at you with all his entourage—indeed, maybe moreso, because when they come, the attack is from outside, you can flailingly try to fight their demands, and you can fall a martyr, DV. Euthanasia is one of the most absolute denials of Jesus Christ that can ever be made, at any time, by any means.

 

[mcarmichael]

Hi thanks for taking the time, I'll consider what you said.

However I would like to say that being mauled by a bear or beaten between branches in a tornado, it's quick. I'll bet most people are barely aware of what's happening.

 

[mcarmichael]

I've already fanticised what if I won a lottery, I would split my time between school and the gym.

Death is the inevitable. I don't like the idea that we can't see death as a progress sometimes. When I think of dying I think of crossing that Illinois border Westbound. St. Polycarp pursued a martyrdom. I don't know if that's fully expressed in the prayers.

 

[Stinky]

Someone once said that euthanasia allows a person to die with dignity, with their pride intact. I do not want my pride intact at death (nor in life). May Jesus use all means necessary to remove all pride and sin from me. And may I avail myself and submit to His hand and the sharp scalpel blade as He- the Great Physician removes any means of sin, death, and separation from my Creator. Take my false dignity and my selfish pride Lord! Have Thine own way Lord.

 

[FULK NERA]

I don't mean to encourage anyone but if I lost control of my bodily functions, unless I said otherwise I would prefer to die. Also instead of ever being catheterized, I would probably prefer death.

It is distinctly unchristian to end one‘s life voluntarily, even in extreme discomfort. As a hospice chaplain in a state where ‘euthanasia’, that is, professionally assisted self-murder, has been legal for more than half a decade, I’ve only encountered one or two terminal patients who wanted to or tried to ‘end their suffering’ artificially. I do know of other hospice agencies, to whit one called Vitas, that have been investigated by the board of hospice certification for their contracted doctors’ prescriptions of deadly bolus to end the inconvenient lives of dependent sick persons before it was legalized, among other violations of ethics More recently.

The point of living one‘s life until its natural end is that the dynamic processes of human life are all full of meaning, otherwise human life’s special value in the eyes of God who made us in His own Image is degraded and effaced. We are spiritual beings and while we breathe we can pray and repent. No Christian teacher could ever promote self-murder in any form as it denies the meaning of human experience which includes suffering. Palliative care including hospice is a means of insuring the patient‘s dignity through the entire process of decline and death. All efforts are made to ensure the patient is respected and valued as a spiritual and rational person, and when no longer rational, a spirit-filled human being up to the point of death.

 

[J Michael]

In answer to the question of the thread title, I'd like to think that I wouldn't. Stinky and Fulk Nera above have elaborated on it far better than I can.

 

[Ainnir]

I don't see how something being legal means a person is required to do it. It just means someone won't be arrested. So no, I wouldn't.

 

[mcarmichael]

How do you all feel about a DNR (do not resuscitate)?

 

[mcarmichael]

Dad had a DNR and it didn't seem to make much difference. An ambulance arrived and they proceeded to attempt to resuscitate him. Who knows if he might have been alright if nobody called an ambulance, against his wishes fwiw.

I remembered he was the first person to tell me not to get old. Which I understood to mean always be relevant. Dad suffered patiently and then died horribly. God have mercy on his soul.