I just heard that Scotty died...
...yep, the guy who played Scottie on Star Trek has gone to his reward. I hate hearing things like that for so many reasons. The death of an icon seems to beckon the passage of time. They listed the cause of death as both pneumonia and Alzheimer's. So, I don’t know where he was in the progression of that hideous disease but he must have been pretty far along if they listed it as a cause of death.
It made me wonder about something, especially after watching Mark Furman on TV last night talking about Terri Schaivo and how she may have REALLY died. Whatever. That’s not what I was concerned with. I just started thinking about the entire concept of “mercy killing”. Most issues like this one do not end with one court case. That case sets precedent for another and before too much time goes by, things that we had never intended to have happen have occurred. I don’t think that the people who argued for the passage of Roe v Wade would have ever condoned the partial birth abortion fight But we get a little bit desensitized as these things become the norm and the best of intentions can lead to a situation that would outrage us.
Especially in the case of mercy killing. Like it or not, that’s exactly what occurred. Withholding nutrition is akin to withholding the truth. Technically, we did not murder Terri. But, we most assuredly took her life by refusing to do the simple task of feeding her.
OK, I can almost live with that. My fear is that we will eventually find ourselves allowing this to desensitize us a little bit more as to the dignity of life itself. When that begins happening (DUH! It HAS begun), our descendants might just horrify us with a dreadful disrespect for certain types of people.
I was wondering about all of the Alzheimer’s patients that I have taken care of and treated for pneumonia. Pneumonia is a relatively easy illness to overcome if caught early enough, anti-biotics usually do the trick. But, of course, the frailer the patient, the less likely they are to survive. And so, we treat those people who have both of those illnesses everyday.
But...should we do that? Should there be a point at which an Alzheimer’s patient is NOT treated for such illnesses and nature allowed to take it’s course? And if so, when? Who decides that? Obviously you can’t simply say that people should have a living will. First of all, if your healthy relatives have the ability to sue, the doctor probably will do whatever they ask him/her to do. And, as we learned in the Schaivo case, one needn’t necessarily sign anything, apparently, you can just mention it in private to one other person. By the way, if you choose to go that route, don’t mention it to anyone who stands to prosper from your death.
We look back in revulsion at the notion that one human being could own another. But, at the time, the best of our citizens owned human beings. When you look back in time, you expect to see things as a little less enlightened. It should always be like that, looking back, we should always see that we have grown as a civilization.
If we start allowing people to die, how far are we from actually assisting them along? And if we don’t need a legal document, how long will it be before you don’t need the permission of a family member? I can easily imagine a time when an anonymous man with some mind affecting disorder is found and mercifully assisted into the peaceful calm of death.You know, it wouldn’t at all surprise me if the LACK of a legal document is the criteria by which the medical community makes such a judgment.
These types of issues usually take on a life of their own and before long, there is a group of people who have made an industry out of the issue itself. When that happens, these folks want to keep their jobs so they never, ever, under any circumstances, stop their pursuits within the realm of their mission. So, the mission itself must necessarily grow.
Abortion is the best example that I can think of. It began as something that we could tolerate and has grown to include partial birth abortion. Even if these people had that procedure legally sanctioned, they would find some ridiculous co-issue that they would use to keep their jobs. Maybe they would fight the mother of a 12 year old abortion patient to force her to hide the abortion from the child's father becuase the child is terrified of a potential reaction. That sounds insane but why not? Who could have ever foreseen the push for partial birth abortion? Doctors have always acted in the best interests of the mother, why do you need a law to provide for that? If a mother’s life was in danger unless that procedure was preformed, any doctor would perform it. I don’t know why it would be necessary, but you don’t need a law to allow something that isn’t prohibited.
Anyway, the point is that sometimes, issues do take on a life of their own and there doesn’t seem to be much that we can do about it. But, we owe it to our kids to think about such things and try to teach them concepts like dignity and respect. Unless of course, those things become politically incorrect. If you think that that is impossible, think about a religious man trying to get elected to a public office. Within my own lifetime, that has gone from a good thing to a bad thing. Yikes.
Things are changing a lot more quickly than they ever have before. Life is nothing like it was even 50 years ago. Things never changed this quickly before. I don’t think that it will be very long before the entire issue of mercy killing gets totally out of control. It wasn’t that long ago that we put Jack Kevorkian in prison for assisting totally willing people in their own suicide. I have a feeling that had he been tried after the Schaivo killing, he very well may have gone free.
It’s all in the timing and time marches on. My biggest fear is that we have piqued as a civilization and are now beginning to see our downfall begin. Nothing good could possibly come from allowing people who haven’t left a living will to die like Terri died. Just like capital punishment, it diminishes us as a society just a little bit and it does so with no real benefit to us. We, as a species, simply don’t know enough about the secrets of life to play God on such levels.
I HOPE our descendants will evolve to a point where they can look back in horror at some of the things we have done. But I have a feeling that is we who can foresee the ghastliness.
...yep, the guy who played Scottie on Star Trek has gone to his reward. I hate hearing things like that for so many reasons. The death of an icon seems to beckon the passage of time. They listed the cause of death as both pneumonia and Alzheimer's. So, I don’t know where he was in the progression of that hideous disease but he must have been pretty far along if they listed it as a cause of death.
It made me wonder about something, especially after watching Mark Furman on TV last night talking about Terri Schaivo and how she may have REALLY died. Whatever. That’s not what I was concerned with. I just started thinking about the entire concept of “mercy killing”. Most issues like this one do not end with one court case. That case sets precedent for another and before too much time goes by, things that we had never intended to have happen have occurred. I don’t think that the people who argued for the passage of Roe v Wade would have ever condoned the partial birth abortion fight But we get a little bit desensitized as these things become the norm and the best of intentions can lead to a situation that would outrage us.
Especially in the case of mercy killing. Like it or not, that’s exactly what occurred. Withholding nutrition is akin to withholding the truth. Technically, we did not murder Terri. But, we most assuredly took her life by refusing to do the simple task of feeding her.
OK, I can almost live with that. My fear is that we will eventually find ourselves allowing this to desensitize us a little bit more as to the dignity of life itself. When that begins happening (DUH! It HAS begun), our descendants might just horrify us with a dreadful disrespect for certain types of people.
I was wondering about all of the Alzheimer’s patients that I have taken care of and treated for pneumonia. Pneumonia is a relatively easy illness to overcome if caught early enough, anti-biotics usually do the trick. But, of course, the frailer the patient, the less likely they are to survive. And so, we treat those people who have both of those illnesses everyday.
But...should we do that? Should there be a point at which an Alzheimer’s patient is NOT treated for such illnesses and nature allowed to take it’s course? And if so, when? Who decides that? Obviously you can’t simply say that people should have a living will. First of all, if your healthy relatives have the ability to sue, the doctor probably will do whatever they ask him/her to do. And, as we learned in the Schaivo case, one needn’t necessarily sign anything, apparently, you can just mention it in private to one other person. By the way, if you choose to go that route, don’t mention it to anyone who stands to prosper from your death.
We look back in revulsion at the notion that one human being could own another. But, at the time, the best of our citizens owned human beings. When you look back in time, you expect to see things as a little less enlightened. It should always be like that, looking back, we should always see that we have grown as a civilization.
If we start allowing people to die, how far are we from actually assisting them along? And if we don’t need a legal document, how long will it be before you don’t need the permission of a family member? I can easily imagine a time when an anonymous man with some mind affecting disorder is found and mercifully assisted into the peaceful calm of death.You know, it wouldn’t at all surprise me if the LACK of a legal document is the criteria by which the medical community makes such a judgment.
These types of issues usually take on a life of their own and before long, there is a group of people who have made an industry out of the issue itself. When that happens, these folks want to keep their jobs so they never, ever, under any circumstances, stop their pursuits within the realm of their mission. So, the mission itself must necessarily grow.
Abortion is the best example that I can think of. It began as something that we could tolerate and has grown to include partial birth abortion. Even if these people had that procedure legally sanctioned, they would find some ridiculous co-issue that they would use to keep their jobs. Maybe they would fight the mother of a 12 year old abortion patient to force her to hide the abortion from the child's father becuase the child is terrified of a potential reaction. That sounds insane but why not? Who could have ever foreseen the push for partial birth abortion? Doctors have always acted in the best interests of the mother, why do you need a law to provide for that? If a mother’s life was in danger unless that procedure was preformed, any doctor would perform it. I don’t know why it would be necessary, but you don’t need a law to allow something that isn’t prohibited.
Anyway, the point is that sometimes, issues do take on a life of their own and there doesn’t seem to be much that we can do about it. But, we owe it to our kids to think about such things and try to teach them concepts like dignity and respect. Unless of course, those things become politically incorrect. If you think that that is impossible, think about a religious man trying to get elected to a public office. Within my own lifetime, that has gone from a good thing to a bad thing. Yikes.
Things are changing a lot more quickly than they ever have before. Life is nothing like it was even 50 years ago. Things never changed this quickly before. I don’t think that it will be very long before the entire issue of mercy killing gets totally out of control. It wasn’t that long ago that we put Jack Kevorkian in prison for assisting totally willing people in their own suicide. I have a feeling that had he been tried after the Schaivo killing, he very well may have gone free.
It’s all in the timing and time marches on. My biggest fear is that we have piqued as a civilization and are now beginning to see our downfall begin. Nothing good could possibly come from allowing people who haven’t left a living will to die like Terri died. Just like capital punishment, it diminishes us as a society just a little bit and it does so with no real benefit to us. We, as a species, simply don’t know enough about the secrets of life to play God on such levels.
I HOPE our descendants will evolve to a point where they can look back in horror at some of the things we have done. But I have a feeling that is we who can foresee the ghastliness.
posted by Meg Kelso | 10:08 AM
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