#6 Postby j » Fri May 16, 2003 7:42 am
I'll put my 2 cents in gladly. Coincidentally. I had this very discussion yesterday at break with 5 or 6 Southern Baptists. Needless to say, I was a "minority". We discussed 2 things. One taking their own life, and one having their own death administered by a member of the medical profession. My stance: I'm totally against Doctor assisted suicide because I think it's un-ethical. That's not just my feeling...that's the way its written in the oath they take. If they don't like it, they should try to change it, or not become a doctor. Doctor's are about the preservation of life; not the ending of it.
Now..and here is where I got myself into trouble. It is my stance that any person wishing to commit suicide, is more than welcome to. I was greeted with an eary silence followed by the expected quoting from the Bible.
But, I stand by what I believe in and supported it as follows. One day, following the death of my father, from an excruciatingly long drawn out battle with Cancer, I sat down and had a discussion with my Mother. Actually she had it with me. She informed me, and my sister, that if she was to ever get in the condition that Dad had been in, that she was going to take her life. At first we were shocked. She went on to justify herself, in a way NONE of us could comprehend without livng in her shoes for the last 3 years. The agony she saw her husband go through. She told us of how many times near the end, he had told her he just wishes it could be over. He was addicted to morphine drip feed, dillusional, constantly in agonizing pain. His quality of life, as he had judged for himself, was so terrible that life was a burden, and death was becoming a welcome event.
We talked about this at length with her, but in the end, she told us it was her life, and having lived through this, she did not want to go through it again. She said she would end her life if it came to that.
I support her decision, and anybody elses to do the same, under terminal conditions, AFTER everything that can be done has been done. No man or woman should have to suffer, and although I will be devastated, if and when it would ever come to the day that my Mother would make this choice...I will remember it was a choice she alone can make.
Some of you will undoubtebly say that I must then support Freedom of Choice. Because after all, it's your body and you can do with it as you please.
One HUGE difference though, in that inside that body that you think you can do whatever you want with, is a baby waiting to be born. Not the same thing.
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I stopped to visit him yesterday and he is ready to go to be with his sweetheart, he said he wishes he knew of a doctor that would help him *cross over*. Glenn for one, is in POOR health, he too, from what he told me, has cancer of the colon, he hasn't said a WORD to anyone but me about this. Anyway, what is your take on this matter?
They said "You shouldn't MIX alch and drugs!" 
COME ON....the poor lady only had weeks to live, her husband Ed brought their doctor in, asked his opinion on the matter, HE then blew HIS cork, needless to say, she enjoyed her double screwdrivers until the end!
