Roger Kusch, a former top-level German politician, has invented what he calls a “suicide machine.” The machine is aimed at patients who are terminally ill and want to die. Unfortunately it seems that the medical community, German politicians and churches are having a cow about Kusch’s presentation of the killing machine.
From my point of view the machine sounds good, those who know they are going to die are able to suicide painlessly? I know, it sounds morbid, but think about it. What is worse than dying? Suffering as your health fades, your mind fades and then you’re a vegetable that depends on the care of others to sustain life for those last days.
I have had people close to me pass after a long illness, and I loved every minute I got with them, but for the pain involved, physical as well as emotion, it might not be worth it to some. True, not everyone who is dying has the same experience, but from what I have seen… It isn’t a walk in the park.
Some jerk named Wolfgang Huber, the head of Germany’s Lutheran Church, says that, “society must help terminally ill patients deal with their pain rather then accepting suicide as an option.” Well my question is, does he have a disease that is only giving him 6 months to live? If not, he needs to sit down and shut up. The only people who should get to vote for or against the use of a suicide booth should be the terminally ill community. Huber says, “it is against the spirit of our ethics, the spirit of our ethical tradition, the spirit of the Christian image of a human person and against the spirit of our law.” Well screw that, spirits and Christian’s can suck it and believe in God when they are the ones on the chopping block of life.
Kudos to Kusch:
“To those who criticize me, I say: it is none of your business,” Kusch said angrily when confronted with the criticism. He says churches and politicians are using phony and cynical arguments and that he believes a majority of Germans have already accepted assisted suicide as an option.
“There are people who are suffering, and who can’t deal with the pain anymore, and I want to help those people.”
Tags: disease, Roger Kusch, Suicide, Suicide Machine, Terminally Ill
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i’m sorry, has he never heard of Dr. Kevorkian? And as someone who just watched their grandmother pass last night, I support this. The poor woman was in great pain and the only thing we could do legally was deny them to force a feeding tube in her and deny medication for the pneumonia that eventually took her. What a sad sad way to die. I’m embarrassed to say that I can end my pet’s suffering but not my grandmother’s legally.
The wide-spread aversion against assisted suicide is founded in the Christian roots of our culture. The old Greeks as well as the old Japanese didn’t find anything wrong with it. They respected the right of the individual to determine the mode of his/her exitus. And that right should also apply to those, who do NOT suffer from intolerable pain (after all, a lot of help can be gained from opium-derivates) but also to those, who do not want to become a burden to their loved ones … or to anyone.
Since - in spite of many attempts - I have never been able to believe in a PERSONAL, almighty, just, and loving God, I feel it is only humane to help anyone who wishes to “retire” to do so, provided that person is not being PUSHED by anyone (greedy relatives etc.).
But to be fair: It seems to be only consistent for “true believers” (and I envy them!) to deny individuals the right to die at their own choosing, since “what GOD has given, can only be taken by HIM/HER” etc.
In the “good old days” (they must have been horrible!), before people could easily inform themselves about what is going on in this cruel world of ours through the media, people could be forgiven for simply not seeing the all-pervading, random and cruel injustices and sufferings of innocents to be observed everywhere. (Actually, I do not need television to be aware of it: I just have to look under the bridges, where the “homeless” live … and ask myself: Why them? Why not me?!)
But NOW, the unfathomable capacity of the “true believers” to look the other way cannot be explained other than by their strong psychological need to believe in something that relieves their fear of death and its uncertainty be it on the expense of rational thinking and observation. If it helps them, GREAT! But don’t force other people to live and die accordingly!