The Least of These: The Elderly and Infirm

The Least of These: The Elderly and Infirm.

“Rescue those being taken away to death. Keep safe those who are staggering toward slaughter. Don’t hesitate to step in and help. If you say, ‘That’s none of my business,’ will that get you off the hook? If you try to excuse yourself and claim ignorance and say, ‘Oh, we did not know this,’ does not He who weighs and considers the heart perceive it? Will He not repay you and everyone else as their actions deserve? He sees through your excuses and holds you responsible for failing to help those whose lives are threatened.” (Proverbs 24:11).  

ELEANOR RIGBY – AI VIDEO 

Euthanasia: Euthanasia is the practice of ending the life of a patient to prevent further suffering. The word “euthanasia” itself ironically comes from the Greek words “eu” (good) and “thanatos” (death). There are many euphemisms for euthanasia, including the right to die, mercy killing, assisted dying, death with dignity, compassionate care, physician-assisted suicide, and now the more common “Medical Aid in Dying.” PAS (physician assisted suicide) has been legalized in eleven states in the U.S., with many more states in the process of legislation to do the same, resulting in at least 5,300 deaths so far. This horrifying aspect of our culture of death has added the role of executioner to the physician’s role of healer, and contradicts the oath that is taken by every doctor as they enter the medical profession… “First Do No Harm.” This ideal was first stated by the father of medicine, Hippocrates, the 5th century BC Greek physician who until recently had established the foundations for medical ethics. He followed up that statement by having his physicians promise that “no man’s entreaty prevail upon me to administer poison to anyone, and I will counsel no one to do so.” But it’s not surprising that the Hippocratic Oath has been watered down in recent decades, since he also asked physicians to make this promise… “Moreover, I will give no sort of medicine to any pregnant women, with a view to destroy the child.” That promise regarding the immorality of abortion has long been swept under the rug and completely forgotten. It’s a fact that assisted suicide is still suicide, which is self-murder. Does the medical profession really want to go there?

David Grisman Bluegrass Experience -“Old and in the Way”

Moral Objection to Euthanasia. The primary reason that hastening the death of a sufferer is an immoral act is that it is a blatant attempt to grab the car keys from the parent without permission… the keys of life and death that only Creator God can possess. PAS assumes the doctor is all-knowing, which slides all too easily into the delusion of being all-powerful. PAS assumes that life expectancy determines the inherent value of a person. The fact is that each person is Handmade in the image of God, is therefore sacred and worthy of the best care possible until God Himself decides to allow a person’s death. Every person is holy from womb to tomb, regardless of ability or disability, good health or bad health, old or young, rich or poor, wanted or unwanted. Every person has eternal value regardless of circumstance, and they cannot in good conscience be treated as objects of disposal at any point. Are some lives not worth living? No. Is every life worth living, no matter what? Yes.

More Objections to Legalized PAS. 

1. Physican assisted suicide promotes the idea that it is wrong to become a burden to society or to loved ones (over half the PSA victims report that they don’t want to be a burden); that dying is cheaper than treatment; that there is no hope of relief from suffering; that some lives are more worthy of life than others; that doctors have the moral authority to end someone’s life.
2. All the PAS laws are notoriously resistant to keeping the promised safeguards against abuse. Recent history is teaching us that soon after the PAS law is approved, the guardrails all but disappear and oversight is minimal. The PSA bureaucracy has been described by medical researchers this way: “Violations of the law are rampant;” “Guidelines are blatantly and routinely ignored;” “The bureaucracy is in chaos and has zero accountability.” Examples include: physicians routinely and improperly report patient compliance documentation, which means there are thousands of suicide victims who have no official record of ever having agreed to the procedure; the states with PAS do not keep an accurate record of how many assisted suicides have occurred; there is no official record of what death-dealing drugs were used, or if a patient actually died from the drug or something else; the states refuse to release annual statistical reports of assisted suicides; the states have determined that death certificates will not even mention assisted suicide as cause of death.
3. The PAS laws have continuously redefined and enlarged the meaning of “terminal illness.” What began as a condition of imminent and irreversible death has now expanded to include treatable conditions such as mild cognitive impairment, eating disorders, depression, diabetes, arthritis, autism, Downs Syndrome, mental illness, tinnitus, infants with severe disabilities, and believe it or not, those with unbearable housing conditions. And of course, the meaning of the nebulous term “suffering’ has evolved as well, and means whatever the physician wants it to mean.
4. Most states are now doing away with a waiting period, which means that they now offer “same-day service” for those who want to hurriedly make the decision to end their life. A distraught person who is perhaps temporarily depressed can come to the doctor in the morning and be helped to commit suicide by the time the day is over. This means that potentially temporary conditions may cause a person to lose all hope because of the distress of the moment, and at that most vulnerable time, at that weak moment, will decide to end his life. When the waiting periods are removed, there is no time given for a distressed person to reconsider the decision or to think twice about the catastrophic decision they are making. This tragedy is inexcusable on the part of any medical professional with any type of discernment or heart for that person. And because most states do not require an in-person exam or a mental health evaluation before acting on the PSA procedure, no one is able to help the patient sort through the decision. In some states, only 1% of the PSA victims have been referred to personal counseling, pastoral care, or mental health assistance.
5. Doctors, and now RN’s and even physician assistants, are offered this power of life and death, and who declared that they are all infallible or clairvoyant? It’s only logical that they cannot know absolutely when someone will die or how much suffering a person will go through. Quite often, there is overwhelming evidence that the doctor’s diagnosis was incorrect. Even if the diagnosis is correct, that doesn’t certify that their prognosis is accurate. Isn’t it sheer arrogance for a medical professional to assume infallibility and ask that patients entrust their very lives into his/her hands?
6. The amazing advancements in palliative care are being ignored by the PAS crowd. Pain management is at an advanced level and only getting better: targeted anesthetic treatments; neurosurgical techniques; infrared applications; nerve blocks; advanced opioids; implantable pumps that deliver pain relief to the specific sources of the pain; radiofrequency heat applied to damaged nerve tissue; advancements in physical therapy and cognitive psychotherapy; effective hospice care. For the most part, most of the experiences of unrelieved, painful suffering are a thing of the past, and many if not most physicians tell us that assisted suicide to relieve pain is medically unnecessary.
7. Learn what not to do from Canada. The M.A.I.D. (Medical Assistance in Dying) system in the Canadian national health care program accounts for 1 of every 5 deaths there. Euthanasia is the 5^th leading cause of death in Canada, and the numbers continue to climb to 13,000 deaths per year. At last count, probably underreported, there have been over 60,000 MAID deaths since the law was put into force in 2016. Their law began with terminally ill adults, then quickly extended to include treatable conditions in all the elderly, then to those with depression or other temporary illnesses, then to adolescent children, then to younger children, then to the disabled, to disabled infants, and now soon to those with treatable mental illness. Currently, Canada confirms that assisted suicides are increasingly being driven by disability status and not an underlying illness. The most likely person to die now in Canada in their MAID program is someone with a disability or a mental illness.
8. Those with dementia are increasingly being singled out for assisted suicide. But who decides for someone who can’t communicate or is not of sound body or mind to make that decision? Is the medical professional qualified to speak for the mentally disabled person in matters of life and death? Or how about the person’s caregiver? Who is to say that the caregiver is doing the right thing by pushing for an assisted suicide of a family member?
9. If the wrong people gain power in a government, it doesn’t take much to go from legal euthanasia to legal eugenics. It didn’t take Hitler long to send physically and mentally disabled persons to the death camps because, as he himself declared, “their lives were not worth living.“

So the incomparable John Prine, one of America’s best lyricists ever, wrote this song when he was 21 years old and delivering mail to a nursing home outside Chicago, and he couldn’t help but notice how lonely and isolated the residents were. John delivered the mail personally to every single person in that nursing home. As he once said, “I have always liked old people, and in fact I want to be one some day. His experience inspired him to write this poignant song:

John Prine – Hello In There (Live From Sessions at West 54th)

“Enough! You’re here to defend the defenseless, to give justice to the weak and fatherless, to maintain the rights of the oppressed and needy. Your job is to rescue the powerless and stand up for them, to deliver them from all who exploit them!” (Psalm 82:2-4).