(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

[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]

Someone please remind me to fill out a medical directive. My mother is Catholic.

I cannot even conceive of the horror it must be to have a 15 year gap in one's life. Especially a gap without awareness of the passage of time and the vast nature of the changes that are happening and shaping the world and those close to you Hmmm... March 1989. Super Nintendo did not yet exist. The Soviet Union still existed. The Berlin Wall was still standing. I was in my third semester of college. My dad was still alive. My son was only 10 months old.

A couple of years I could deal with, but anymore than that would be, for me, the equivalent of waking up in hell.

[lassiter.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll have to take the opposite stance in some sense here - I've always thought suspended-animation time-travel into the future would be an amazing experience. Well, ok, as long as total ecological collapse hadn't happened in the meantime.

[akaiyume.livejournal.com]

I agree, it could be fascinating. But I only if I could be held in stasis until everything had changed greatly enough that I would not be walking around living in a perpetual state of deja vu. Say, 150 years minimum.

[secret-willow.livejournal.com]

What if it was a year? Three years? What is your cut off point? Everyones is different.. my point is is that slepy for over 3 months and went throgh a living hell for six more months and it was worth it.

[akaiyume.livejournal.com]

I would say two years.

One of the big reasons I have such a relatively short cut off time is due to my own psychological problems. At least a third of the time I live in a world that seems like it should be familiar but appears altered in weird and hard to define ways. It is most unpleasant. I really do not even want to think about how it would feel if everything that seemed familiar really was different in ways that I could never fully grok due to lack of any common experiences.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

...and I am certainly guilty of over-simplifying the matter.

What concerned me the most about this, is that the decision of whether to continue or discontinue life support is an individual and family matter that is best evaluated, in my opinion, case by case. A pronouncement from the Pope on this issue will short-circuit that decision for thousands of families. I know the Pope was trying to be compassionate, but I do not think that stepping in and making such personal decisions in a sweeping way like this is truly compassionate.

Someday I will need to learn more about your experience. Of course I am very glad that you are still with us...