There are assisted suicide "bills" pending in several states. Oregon has had this law in effect for several years now and a while ago, a young lady who found out she had brain cancer, made headlines by going to Oregon so she could have a doctor prescribe her a lethal dose of medication. And we all watched as a judge allowed the estranged husband (who was living with his girlfriend) carry out his wishes of putting his wife, Terry Schiavo, who was sentient but severely brain damaged, out of her "misery" by starving her to death. It took her several days to die and the judge ignored that her family wanted to take her home and care for her. (A Jewish neurologist who had studied the case, wrote me that her death was shameful - she could swallow liquids and could have been fed jello etc even if they removed the feeding tube. What I didn't know at the time was that Fr Pavone who had witnessed this death, said, they stationed several police officers around Terry's bed to prevent anyone from relieving her pain of starving to death by wetting her lips or even feeding her some jello!). Shame on Americans for letting this happen.
For being a society who wants to avoid death at all costs, we seem to be rather anxious to cause the death of others considered a "burden" or too expensive or ? For example Planned Parenthood has terminated the lives of 7 million unborn babies and since abortion was legalized in the USA (also a decision from "the bench" rather than the legislature), 53 million unborn babies have lost their lives to abortion.
Part of the problem with "assisted suicide" is wrong thinking - the prevalent idea is that in a suicide, the person takes a large dose of pills, goes to sleep and never wakes up.
WRONG! When the person starts to go into respiratory failure, he/she DOES wake up but is unable to cry for help and suffers for a while. The so called death penalty where they give a lethal injection is also not instantaneous - the victim takes a couple of hours to die, and is in pain throughout the process.
I watched a lady die - I actually gave her Viaticum ("food for the journey" or last Communion). She writhed in agony. I think most of us die painfully just as it was painful to enter this earth (why a new born baby screams after birth).
Also not only was I the victim of a loved one committing suicide (our Mother took her own life) but also have witnessed the effects of a suicide on loved ones. It took me two years of counseling to get over my mother's suicide. And young people suffer even worse - a young friend of ours whose mother took her own life - she was perhaps 5 or 6 when that happened, still suffers depression and more, even today as a teenager.
That is, if you don't care about yourself, at least realize that if you choose that way to death, it will really hurt those around you (not withstanding what God might have to say about it all when you stand before the Throne of the Lamb).
St John Paul II showed the world many things (and wrote one of the best encyclicals on the evils of abortion) but most important, he showed us how to die with dignity - he, ill and totally disabled with Parkinson's disease, waited on God to take him. Let's pray that all will follow his inspiring example and choose life!
The possibility of whether eternal life would work on earth, is an idea which has been pondered, probably for centuries. It certainly has been tossed back and forth during my lifetime as can be observed in some of the movies, discussing the possibility.
Sickness and pain would have to be somehow deleted from life - an idea extremely attractive to a society which sees no benefit in suffering.
Assuming that, there is the movie, "Tuck Everlasting". Tuck drinks from a spring in the forest and finds he does not age at all (aging also has to be removed from the equation). He does retain his youth and strength, but watches all his loved ones live, get old and die. The movie ends with him standing all alone.
In fact, loneliness is something humans feel would be a given, if we outlive those we love. That even can be seen in the elderly who have outlived parents and kids - they are extremely lonely and loneliness can be more painful than physical pain.
Which brings in the question, is physical pain the worst thing we can suffer? According to a Dr Oz show, the consensus of the audience (and it seems, Dr Oz as well) was that if the physical pain gets pronounced enough, it would be a logical solution to seek someone to help us end our lives. A woman with a type of muscular dystrophy which has taken away her ability to walk and use her arms, was prominent in the show - she did not use a respirator so apparently could eat and breath well and also could move her head fairly well. She was depressed and wanted the right to have a physician help her end her life. Interestingly enough however, when Dr Oz asked her if she would favor not being treated if she got pneumonia again allowing her to die, she evaded the question. (She has had pneumonia twice and has been treated).
Another man, who looked elderly and was much more disabled than the lady - he required a respirator - told the audience that he appreciates every day of life he has been given.
Interesting, are the movies, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (one made in the 1950's and one made in the 1970's). Tonight I saw yet, another remake entitled "Invasion" released in 2007. The story is that some type of invasion from Outer Space takes over humans and recreates them as devoid of emotions. "There will be no more war or suffering," the protagonists are told. In all of these movies, there are a couple of humans who fight against the takeover, preferring their flawed emotions to becoming a being who is incapable of human love. The latest version has a happy ending. A vaccine is found and given as a sort of antidote to the cells taking over humanity and everyone is cured and life goes back to normal. But the leading lady is shown in the last scene as wondering whether the world with war and sadness is really preferable.
In the second and third movie of this group ("Invasion of the Body Snatchers"), each human who is taken over, is shown going through a type of aging after which s/he wakes up with no emotions, no ability to love. This seems to be asking the question - if eternal live exists, wouldn't we have to be changed? Our human concept of the change necessary, is being given - what the psychiatrists calls a blunted affect, i.e. a deadening of the emotions and all we care about.
Utimately, there seems a consensus that an eternal life here on earth would not be nice. The movie, "Cocoon" depicts elderly folks stumbling across aliens who have somehow achieved eternal life but in order to obtain this, these elderly must go with the aliens to their planet, far away from the earth.
The Christian concept of eternal life is not a lessened awareness but rather a heightened awareness. Something we humans cannot picture. And even if we do not understand how this will be achieved, we have the testimony of Jesus, still the only man who ever made such an impression on the earth that He literally stopped time (which we then, divided in "AD or "anno Domini" i.e. "after God" and BC i.e. "before Christ"). If we still have questions, the Bible tells us "eye has not seen, ear has not heard, of the glories which God has planned for those who love Him."
There is a lot of evidence, observational and logical that we should not try to force our premature death but instead should patiently wait for God to call us. There is also a rather impressive body of evidence that when God calls He will "make all things well" , not by us ceasing to exist but rather by our living in a full beautiful manner, the likes of which we cannot concept here on earth.
And of course, Cardinal Dolan said it much better than I did! :)
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