Me Thinks

Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation Monday allowing terminally ill people in the nation's most populous state to take their own lives.  California is now the fifth state to allow terminally ill patients to use doctor-prescribed drugs to end their lives.

I listened to a radio talk show about this issue.  I heard people say that it is comforting for people that are suffering to know that they have this option.  "If the pain gets too bad, they can check out."  

Is that the way it is supposed to be?  Are we supposed to be in charge of, and in control of, when we have had enough, or when we are ready to end our lives and move on to the next phase of being?

To me, this is another case of something that is "legal" by the law of the land, but not morally legal.

I have not had cancer nor any other serious disease and I cannot imagine the pain and suffering that people go through.  I am sorry for each and every one that suffers and I don't want to add to their suffering.  

You would think that after seeing my mother suffer and die from cancer this year that I would be more sympathetic to this stand. Would I have wanted my mother to take medication and pass away a few months earlier than she did, to relieve herself of suffering?  No, I would not want that and I'll tell you why.  Something happened to my  mother and something happened to the rest of us as she suffered.  In my eyes, she was going through her "final spin" in the refinery of life. She was receiving her final polish and she entered heaven with a soul that was refined and beautiful.  In her final year, her physical body suffered but her soul softened and grew.  She was contemplative, grateful, sweet, tender, and loving.  And we, who for years had received service at her hand, were able to serve her!  That time of suffering, though heart-wrenching, is an almost holy memory and that period of time prepared us for her passing. I cherish the time I had with her.  I would not have wanted a day less.


It is one thing that the world pushes God off of his rightful throne, not needing Him or respecting Him, being too busy or too proud to accept counsel and direction from Him, but it is another thing for us, mere mortals to ascend to the throne and act as if we were/are God.