Atheist Devotional #246--Kevorkian Dies

No, people that are NOT elderly and pooping themselves should try to stick it out.  BECAUSE situations change and things will mostly likely get better for young/ish physically healthy/ish individuals.. Even without effective treatment, depression comes and goes. And the people that are left behind are the ones left holding the baggage of the suicidal person. That's the fact of the matter, whether they like it or not -- they will **** up the lives of those left living by offing themselves -- so they should stick it out if at all possible and get help.

Agree.  Whenever we've had to put a pet to sleep, my mourning has been a bit tempered by the knowledge that we at least prevented some suffering.  Yet, when my grandmother died, she just had to suffer for months and months and we couldn't do a thing, even though she begged.

Hi Leann!  I'm a christian but I supported Kevorkian. I'm not much of a "mass follower". Just because a church supports an idea, it does not mean I do. I like to think for myself. I think he meant well. My Mom was a nurse and she absolutely thought Kevorkian had every right to help people escape horrible pain. She said he was a man "ahead of his time".     Connie

I know not ALL xians are against assisted suicide. But you'd be hard pressed to find any atheists that are activists against it. It's a religious law forced on ALL of what's supposed to be a SECULAR society by a handful of fanatics.

That's because you really are a follower of Christ. I'm an atheist, but I  believe that many  of the Christian precepts are part of the moral code that all thinking beings should follow. Among those precepts are MERCY and LOVE for all living things. It was this belief in mercy and love that caused me to have my most-beloved, elderly,  incontenient, crippled life companion Sydney The Dog put down.

There's not a day goes by that I don't miss her, but never do I regret giving her peace. I just hope that, should I ever be where she was, physically and mentally, someone will do the same FOR me.

As a child I watched my grandfather suffer with lung cancer.  Every few hours the nurse would come in and drain his lungs.  It was so painful that when it was over he would ask us "How much longer, how much longer?"  Meaning how much longer until he died.  

It was a crime to let this man who was a WWII veteran and 20 year police officer and Captain of said force suffer this way.  I'm sure had he been able to he would have gone much sooner.

Don't get me wrong, I don't feel that suicide is a good thing.  When I hear of it happening to hale and hearty people it really makes me sad.  I wish I could have told them it gets better please wait it out.  I have been where you are and I know it gets better.  But, if someone is definitely suffering at the end of their life why prolong the agony for days or months?  That is a shame. 

my father was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 1991....   they gave him 5 years tops...

in 1996 he went into the hospital for the last time...  he had been throwing blood clots, and they had him on meds to stop that...  the last time i was with my father, he was laying in the hospital on 12 liters of oxygen...  my mother was standing there, telling me how she had to lift up his oxygen mask to spoon-feed him...  he turned and looked at me and the look on his face will be burned in my memory -- his eyes were screaming "NO"...  he didn't want that...

he knew he was in the end stage of his disease, and ultimately told his doctor to stop the meds... the doc tried to talk him out of it... two days later he was gone..

dr. kevorkian had a point....


jeris

Dr. K. had a HEART. The people he assisted were TERMINAL and in excruciating pain with NO CHANCE of improvement. He went to jail for being a merciful provider of a service that many begged him to perform.

I can only hope that if I reach the point that assisted suicide is an option I able able to find someone who is kind and generous as he was.

I'm new around these parts but I have to say I think I just fell in love with you LeaAnn! 

It's nice to see that us "unbelievers" are finally able to put our feet up and relax.