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| Wesley Smith |
Canada is implacably against the death penalty. Yet it will soon embrace a regime of wild, wide-open euthanasia imposed on the nation by its Supreme Court.
Killing murderers bad, killing the sick, disabled, mentally ill, and depressed, who have not been given suicide prevention, good.
In the interim before the new regime goes national, the Supreme Court allows judges to issue execution orders allowing assisted suicide.
The first of these has happened, to an ALS patient–validating her belief that her life is not worth living, rather than seeking means to help her find joy again in being alive.
What, Wesley? No way!
Wrong. My last patient as a hospice volunteer died of ALS. He had been suicidal, but eventually “came out of the fog,” in his own words, to be very glad he was alive.
He hated promotion of assisted suicide for wanting “to push me out of the brightly lit boulevard and into the dark alley.”
His name was Robert Salamanca. He became so furious and the world cheering assisted suicide for ALS, that he wrote a piece for the San Francisco Chronicle. From, “I Don’t Want a Right to Die:”
Euthanasia advocates believe they are doing people like me a favor. They are not. The negative emotions toward the terminally ill and disabled generated by their advocacy is actually at the expense of the “dying” and their families and friends.
We often feel disheartened and without self-assurance because of a false picture of what it is like to die created by these enthusiasts who prey on the misinformed. What we, the terminally ill, need is exactly the opposite — to realize how important our lives are. And our loved ones, friends, and, indeed, society need to help us feel that we are loved and appreciated unconditionally.
Here’s the tragedy. The judge thinks he did the ALS patient a great favor. But he really abandoned her equal worth as a human being because she is disabled and dying.
Worse, a society that cheers making sick people dead. Pushing them into the dark alley, indeed.
Bob would be utterly aghast.
Dying people need reasurance that their last days with us are as important or even more important than many of their earlier days here on earth.Many families experience very important exchanges with their dying family member.Many family members recieve reconciliation and healing at this time. Some people finally get to the important issues with their relative or friend at this time.They know not to put important conversation off.
ReplyDeleteMary Helen Deakin