(no subject)

[sophiaserpentia]

Pope John Paul II said Saturday the removal of feeding tubes from people in vegetative states was immoral, and that no judgment on their quality of life could justify such "euthanasia by omission."

Fantastic. Does that mean the Vatican will be helping families pay the catastrophic medical bills of keeping a person alive, for years or decades, when there is literally no hope of recovery?

The Pope called for more money for a "cure," but there is no "cure" for massive brain damage. Small amounts of damage can repair themselves over time, amazingly enough, but if the prefrontal cortex is destroyed, there's no one home and there never will be.

Why is our culture so afraid of death? Death is part of life. Death is fore-ordained at the moment of birth. To be honest I am not afraid of being dead, I am not afraid of the thought that who I am will one day disappear into oblivion. It's the process of dying itself I'm afraid of. All that pain and panic.

Comments

[yud.livejournal.com]

If anything, you'd think Christians would be in favor of death, because dying means leaving the pain of this world and going into the bliss of heaven (provided a Christian lifestyle and/or a last-minute repenting session).

[secret-willow.livejournal.com]

However, I appreciate the people who fight to make it difficult to pull the plug too easily. I was in a coma for over 3 months. The doctors claimed this was the worst case they had ever seen. I heard about someone recently who woke up after a 15 year coma. I am not afraid to die, I am afraid that someone well meaning may kill me.

In the light hearted comedy Monkey Bone, the main character slips into a coma and his sister is prepared to pull the plug after 90 days of being under.. I woke up after 97 days.

This being said, sounds like the Pope is over simplifying the matter.

[akaiyume.livejournal.com]

Does that mean the Vatican will be helping families pay the catastrophic medical bills of keeping a person alive, for years or decades, when there is literally no hope of recovery?

Yes, shortly after it begins sending child support to all the children who were unintentionally conceived by parents using the rhythm method.

[gentlemaitresse.livejournal.com]

Dying from starvation is an excruciatingly painful death. It seems such a waste when a simple feeding tube could save your life and you *may* indeed recover. A feeding tube does not necessarily require you be in a hospital. And in some cases (such as the woman in Florida) a lawsuit provided the money to give the person medical care for the rest of her life.

[beitlamed.livejournal.com]

Maybe we should all fill out forms to state after what period of time we wish to get unplugged. This is oversimplified of course, but honestly... in so many cases, i ask myself, why should the doctors bear the weight of the decision? Why should the family?

bl

[qilora.livejournal.com]

i have brain damage because of a seizure disorder and a tumor in my left amygdalo-hippocampal(sp) region ... they didn't find my tumor until i was about 27 (i think), but they think i may have had it my entire life....

i had just absense seizures as a small child, and then partials when i hit puberty (around 16 or so)... and in my mid-20s i started having the grand-mals and that is where i lost the time...

to this day, i am *still* hearing about friends i had (that i have no memory of), and i have a horrible time of recognising names and faces (and it doesn't matter how much i like/love a person, they can still be gone from my memory)....

i lost a lot of english too, from the damage done by the seizures, and it took me a couple years to relearn some of it... and i am still slow to talk if i am having a "bad head day"... i can *type* faster than i can talk actually...

brain damage, EVEN THIS LITTLE BIT I HAD is a very very scarey thing.... i can remember the first time my little sister asked me about a friend of mine in NC, and i didn't know who she was talking about, and she said "that gay kid, Nick, Christ you two went *everywhere* together"...

apparently he and i were inseperable.. for the 6 months or so that i was living in Wilmington, we were constantly on the fon and going out together... but when i left NC, i had cut off all contact with him, and never spoke to him again, and forgot he EXISTED even until this day... because even though my sister has told me a lot about him, i have no memory of ever being with him, and i can't remember his face....

when i first heard about him, i just got the chills.. and i sat and shook for almost a half hour because it just seemed like such a horrible thing for me to do, to cut someone off like that... but before i started on meds for the seizure, that was just life for me...

i've lost a *lot* of people this way...

once i started on the meds (once they found something that *worked* for me), i can remember going into the bathroom one day, to pee, and just glancing into the mirror and nearly screaming... because i was a 30 year old woman.... i hadn't had any conscious memory of my face for at least 6 years or so... so i had not seen my face gradually aging, in my memory... all i knew was what i looked like younger, and so when i looked into the mirror, *that* is who i expected to see...

and yes, i know, a lot of people have a sudden eureka moment like that, where they will look into a mirror one day, or a foto of themselves, and realise how they've aged... but this was different... i have little memory of any of those years... i was lucky to go through the motions of living while i was sick with the grand-mals... i'd have 2-3 a day.. and in-between, i might eat or sleep, or *maybe* try to talk with a friend... but nothing else... its just really scarey....

and whenever i hear about coma patients waking up after so long, i just get the chills and think "god, i'm so sorry".... i know it sounds evil, but sometimes i just think it is better for people's bodies to be allowed to die, than to have to suffer through a life with brain-damage...

when i was last talking to my neurologist, we were discussing the brain-damage that i would recieve when the tumor is removed... and i was doing pretty good for a bit (i.e. no crying) ;-) but then i had one question to ask him, that made me get very shakey, i said:
"do you know how many times i have died?........ can you tell me who is going to wake up from the surgery?"
and he couldn't answer me, (of course!), he just looked at me, a little sad... and i added "Dawn is dead" (Dawn is our birth-name) "I'm Julie now.... is *Julie* going to wake up from the surgery, or will *she* be dead too?"..... and he said "honestly, sweetie, i can't tell you that... nobody can."

blech.

(sorry for rambling so much in your LJ)...

Juju & Co.

[lady-dindraine.livejournal.com]

Please, I am not trying to offend okay?

My parents are just reaching the age of 65. This means they can get social security, and medical aide. Yet still it is very expensive.

*treading carefully* The Pope does also call for a "distribution of wealth" in this world. As far as a more fair and balanced use of money. This could lighten the load for people with medical expenses etc. Why is it so expensive? I don't really think it should be.

As well, *deep breath* my Grandmother died of alzheimers. We know it leads to one thing. A vegetative state. The person, goes back literally to the fetal position. It could have saved alot of money, and depression to euthanise her. There is no cure!!!

Yet honestly? This may seem very heartless of me, but it isn't. I needed that. I needed to be there for her during this. Caring for someone is a huge lesson in compassion. I used to hate her. She was brutal to my father, to me at times.

Alot of healing took place during her illness. Alot of soul searching. Terror for me, watching her go through this, it is hereditery?

My parents and I used this time to rebuild our relationship, we all used this time to forgive her. Before this I hadn't really talked with them for ten years.

She was mean and angry in her illness. She didn't know me, I was the girl in the picture on the wall. Yet I learned how to care for her anyways, how to love her. Patience, compassion.

My daughter was given time with her. Before this she really had no patience for children. She changed. Loved my child. They had some wonderfull times.

We were able to love her completely and care for her. Something we would not have done, if it weren't for that extra time. When she died, I wept. I may not have done that hadn't I been given this time.

I truly believe we go through life and experience things for a reason. She went through her illness for a reason of her own.
To cut off her life would have been humane? Or would it realy have been? To die, with all of us feeling badly for the way she treated us. Or to have the time to reconsider.

I don't want to die. In my Buddhist studies, I have trouble with this. I cannot leave now. My child needs me. I feel panic at the thought of dying. Hopeing and praying, I can stay until she is on her feet and old enough to care for herself. Otherwise, I would be fine.

I hope I do not offend~

Peace, love and light~~

[meridjet.livejournal.com]

I have the same lack of fear in regards to death, and the same very strong fear of the process of dying. I am afraid of the pain, particularly of a sudden violent death, such as a car crash -- and of having time to see it coming and be flooded with panic at the knowledge.

Proverbial mixing of proverbial fruits.

[t-head.livejournal.com]

• His Holiness is bound to speak on this matter, regardless of his own intimate opinion, as the leader of the Catholic Church, the Vicar of Christ.
  
• As far as we know, Christ never euthanized anyone. Even in cases which, in ancient context, were as grave as vegetative state (such as leprosy and insanity), Christ made an effort to heal them. The precedent was set: his followers healed people, rather than give up on them, to this day.
  
• Catholic belief is that human life does not belong to the person; it belongs to God. Human beings cannot give themselves life, neither then can they take it, be it their own or other's.
  
• I daresay it's not fear of death that motivated this declaration from John Paul II, but rather fear of the growing idea that human life is not sacred and can be disposed of when no longer considered "worthy". This idea is not exclusive to Catholics.
  

Fantastic. Does that mean the Vatican will be helping families pay the catastrophic medical bills of keeping a person alive, for years or decades, when there is literally no hope of recovery?

You certainly destroyed that poor straw man. Poor thing, it never had a chance...

In the arms of the right person...

[publius-aelius.livejournal.com]

It is very likely that the test of a good life is to be able to die well.

[twistedcat.livejournal.com]

i'm sure it's been said, but you would think that someone whose job it is to be an intermediary for god would be ok with people dying.

freak.

[dorothy-android.livejournal.com]

I agree with your veiw on the subject. I certainly wouldn't want to be in a vegitative state. No disrespect to those who feel diffrently.