our say on what’s happening today

Thank you for that Halcyon. I shall look into that.

Hero42 wrote:

We talk about death with dignity and yet allow people to linger on with absolutely no dignity whatsoever in certain conditions. Some people have a completely different attitude to the suffering of animals than they do to people. Interestingly the bible, which formed a basis for our society in the past, does not condemn suicide. In some cultures suicide was considered the honourable thing to do in certain circumstances. I know we will get a lot of information over the next twelve months and I look forward to some interesting debates. Cheers 🙂

Hero I watched my sister  die at peace under hospice care I saw no suffering as I know any pain she was in was managed by  medical experts in this care. Lucritia Seal ( yes I possibly spelt her name wrong ) whom started the campaign  to allow euthanasia as she was medical diagnose  as dying from cancer. Actually she died naturally at peace under managed Hospice palliative care, I gather surrounded by her family etc .

I find it very interesting those that talk about suffering to the end, especially as those that suggest assisted suicide ( euthanasia )  should be allowed and people like myself are mean and horrible for denying  these people to be helped  commit suicide. I ask these supporters of  assisted suicide what medical expertise do you have to make this decision  that another  person should be allowed to commit suicide. ?

Hero you suggest above and talk about allowing a women to suffer by denying her an abortion is mean and horrible, but ignore the reality the human that who will suffer the most by this action is the unborn child, whom had NO choice about its existence. Hero the unborn child is RIPPED apart by the abortionist using a suction pump. Not really a nice way to die is it  Hero!!!

Finally Hero you make a statement above  that the bible  does not condemn suicide !! Hmm to make a statement like this you would have needed to have studied  the bible!  You would have at least have needed to have read the bible a book of three ie the Old Testament ( Jewish religon ) Jesus teachings ( the  four Gospels of Mark Matthew Luke and John ) and the New Testament  with many basics o f the Christian religion.

In the later  find it strange as you have said on other posts that to your thinking Christ is an imaginary individual. If you truly believe this  then it is very surprising that you have read the bible cover to cover a  book which is the basis of Christianity teaching!  People around the globe have read and studied the bible for centuries now ,  I doubt if any of them would be as knowledgeable as you are for what it says and declares as there is a lot of information to take in with this large book !

Paulinem
I don’t believe I have ever said that Jesus was an imaginary figure given that we know from historic records that he existed.

I have studied the bible as I seek an understanding of why we are here. In that study I have not found anywhere in the bible that explicitly states suicide is a sin or wrong. But please correct me if I have missed something as I am always open to correcting a misunderstanding.

You have quoted examples from your personal experience of people experiencing a peaceful death with medical supervision and the appropriate pain medication. And that does work for many people but not for everyone.
But I was referring to dignity not peace. There are many conditions whereby the people lose all dignity at the end of their lives as they lose control over their bodies.

Voluntary euthanasia is about choice at the end when the inevitable is known. For all of us we don’t know when we are going to die for most of our lives. But for some people a disease occurs and we are given medical advice that gives us a time frame but the time frame is variable. As the disease progresses that time frame becomes more defined until we get to a point when the doctors can say with reasonable accuracy that the person only has a few weeks or days to live. In my experience nurses are more accurate in that prediction.

For those people who know that every medical option has been tried and failed and that the end is only a matter of a short period of time and the pain or indignity is too much to bear then the option of a controlled and relatively pain free death with as much dignity as can be offered should surely be a option.

Cheers 🙂

Hero to understanding the meaning etc of the bible takes years of study, priests for example have  six years of study in their training  much of it is being taught   to understand the bible ie they preach what it is saying teaching to their congregation. Thus you just reading it  will not give you an immediate understanding of the message it is relaying such as you suggest approving suicide. I am no expert in what is written in the bible as I suspect you are not also !  But if you do read it then I suggest the four gospels there is much there as guidance of  the life we live in daily lives

Ah actually Hero I do remember a post of yours a while back where you said /suggested  that God/Jesus is an imaginary person that  devotees  follow.

Arandar I trust the medical people I know to put the patients interest at their best interest. The ones I know would use all the skills they have to assist their patient to continue to live in painless life as they can make it. They would NEVER assist in their suicide.As they entered the medical profession and  trained and work to save and care for lives to live a good life  not kill them!

I gave you an example to two cancer patients that didn’t die in the time they were given but instead with medical assistance went on to live a good and full filling life, This I suspect is far more normal than the rare extreme cases you and others  put forward to justify your desire you see that some  patients should be  inflicted with  assisted suicide or killing.

The medics/palliative care experts  have told us that Seymours legislation is full of holes and is very dangerous based on overseas experience (where sadly euthanasia is legal ) to be abused especially by those sick patients who are weak and vulnerable such as some grownups !!

Paulinem
I fear you are confusing me with someone else as I know from historic records Jesus existed so I wouldn’t say he didn’t.

I didn’t say the bible approved of suicide I said it didn’t condemn it or say it was a sin.
Although two of the incidents of self-killing in the Bible exhibit a positive attitude toward suicide. Arguably, the author of the Gospel of Matthew intends the reader to interpret the disciple Judas’s hanging as an act of remorse. Judas repents and returns the blood money that he received for turning Jesus over to the authorities who executed him (Matt 27:3). Judas acknowledges that he has “sinned in betraying innocent blood” (Matt 27:4). His suicide may be interpreted as an act of atonement because he himself carries out the penalty laid down in the Hebrew Bible for taking a life: “no expiation can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of him who shed it” (Num 35:33; see also Lev 24:17). There is no hint of condemnation of Judas’s self-killing in Matthew. If anything, it is a solution to his guilt rather than something that adds to it.
Expiation means the act of making amends or reparation for guilt or wrongdoing; atonement.

The Israelite leader Samson’s suicide is interpreted positively. The narrator lingers over the body count caused by Samson’s suicidal killing at a pagan temple; it is clear that God gave Samson the strength to carry out this massacre. Human and divine approval is sealed by the celebratory conclusion: “so those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed during his life” (Judg 16:30; compare with Heb 11:32-36).

While modern readers may be less inclined to share the narrator’s view that Samson’s suicide should be commended, there are parallel examples of heroic suicides in contemporary film, such as Spock in The Wrath of Khan, astronauts in Armageddon and Deep Impact, and especially the character of Russell in Independence Day.

On a separate point if a medical person advised you that it would be better for a patient in pain and suffering that they were assisted to die by increasing their morphine drip would you take that medical person’s advice? And don’t say a doctor or nurse wouldn’t give that advice as it has been known to happen.

Also what would your view be of a doctor who wanted to withhold medicine from a patient because they were already in their 80s, were a burden on the system and it was time for them to go as happened with my mother? Incidentally we insisted on the medicine and she lived another 15 years.

Cheers 🙂