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The Pope vs. Terri Schiavo

The biggest story in the news these days arrange in the order of their importance to me are:-

1) Indonesia experienced a second major earthquake that triggered massive panic across Asia and the world.
2) Pope John Paul the second passed-away.
3) Terri Schiavo passed away.

The reason the Indonesian earthquake ranks the highest is because i experienced it myself. Here in Malaysia buildings were shaking, needless to say the devastation at the epicenter would have been devastating.

However that’s not the main point of my blog, the main point about it is the whole right to die issue. Firstly let me point out, that the international community regard Americans as rich, lazy and stupid. Otherwise how could 51% of Americans vote for Bush AGAIN. Let’s face it, the issues in American politics cover abortion, gay marriage , economics and a right to die. While european politics cover such broad ranges as head scarves, football and renaming scottish towns. Needless to say I personally Americans in politics are far more mature than their europeans counterparts.

A right to die,

Many churches throughout the world , whether protestant or catholic are strongly againts euthanasia. The Catholic church will NOT have a funeral mass for someone who has commited the mortal sin of suicide. There’s a difference between mortal sin of suicide and just suicide. To commit mortal sin you need to actually be in full control of your mind and body, you need to be fully aware and in a stable state of mind. So if you’re suffering from a mantal illness and kill yourself, you can kill yourself but still have not commited a mortal sin. There’s also a huge difference between euthanasia and letting go of someone. IF someone like terri who is certified to be brain-dead, and without the help of modern medicine would not survive then that’s actually letting go. Letting go is actually to nice a word to describe starving someone to death as you watch on.

The problem I have with this is that while I try my best to adhere to many catholic tenets and belief , I would never want to be kept alive in such a state. I struggle to actually find a common ground between balancing my beliefs and my wishes. The problem is , many times the contradict each other and i’ll have to pick one. While the thought of being kept in such a state ,placing an enourmous physical, emotional and to an extent financial burden on my family actually scares me half to death. However, the fact that Terri’s parents tried so hard to keep her alive, meant that they truly loved their daughter and truly believed she was alive in both body and MIND. Their catholic beliefs never came into question, their love for their daughter never came into question, the only thing that came into question was their honesty with themselves. They claim she responded when medical professionals proved that impossible, while the side of reason might say she was, any mother will claim otherwise. It is highly unethical to starve a goat to death let alone a human being. If instead of shooting a horse with a broken leg, we starved it to death, would that be ethical? I sure regardless of where you’re reading this you already have an opinion on the subject. The reality is until that autopsy is released we may never know whether she was sentient or not, whether she actually could respond. Her husband might have just killed an innoncent defenseless women and the most of America just stood by and let him. It wasn’t a painless experience like euthnasia, it was a prolonged period of suffering and dying. HOw can anyone call himself an expert if he hasn’t experienced being brain-dead for himself. For hundreds of years we were wrong about so many things, about the world being flat, about the universe orbiting the earth about heavier things falling faster than lighter things. HOw then can be so sure of this? It raises an uneasiness, when the general is OK with starving a women to death then the general public actually has some issues to deal with.

One man who had lots of issues to deal with, was Pope John Paul the second. Pope from the time before I was born, he added clarity to catholic teaching. No catholic can claim they don’t know the church stand on certain issues without being completely ignorant. Abortion, Homosexuality, divorce, contraception and many more issues. Catholics have a clear understading of where the church stands on these issues though many choose to ignore them. THe pope throughout his life has been againts euthanasia, promoting a culture of life. The lived with great dignity and humility achiving fantastics feats. Putting an end to communism, but however in his death and they way he died, he touched the world. He showed us how to die with humility, he stood for what he stands, he was not a hypocrite. HE showed the world that regardless of your physical or mental state of mind, what matters most is that was are all children of God created out of love and through love we can find our way back to him. He showed us that since God gave us this gift of life only he should be allowed to take it away, and he showed tremendous courage in living out his last years and final days in pain and suffering, he gave us an example to live by. God bless his soul.

That’s my 2 cents, don’t spend it all in one place.