It
is here that terminal patients choose a course of action from the core
on one’s being transcending his or her belief in their creator
(religiously) leading to an active participation of one’s assessed
values (personal transformations) that includes their religious
influence, but it is not limited to it as well.
None of us know what we would choose at the end of our life regarding
assisted suicide. It is, therefore, a worthy idea to ponder long before
we get to that place at the end of our lives whereby we may actually
have to make one. In our lives, our soul does have a path that is
chosen for us if we look for it. I would encourage you to follow that
one. For the spiritual life is what brought your life into being, and
the spiritual life will lead you home.
Some terminally ill patients are in so much pain that they would rather
end their life than to go on suffering and experience a poor quality of
life. Because of physical and mental limitations, people in pain have a
much different view on living than people with good health. This
altered view makes some choose certain courses of care in a
debilitating illness he or she may not even consider in a healthy state
of being. Many healthcare providers claim that terminally ill people’s
pain can be controlled to tolerable levels with good pain management,
yet there are tens of millions of patients who do not have access to
adequate pain management in the U.S. alone.
Many religious organizations believe that suffering can be used to
purify us. This purification can be for the caregiver and for the
patient. It is a time to learn and be aware how the body becomes more
soul in the process of transformation associated with dying and death.
Christians believe that life is a gift from God and God does not send
us any experience we cannot handle. Islam states in the Qur’an, “Take
not life which Allah made sacred otherwise than in the course of
justice.” And “Since we did not create ourselves, we do not own our
bodies.” Orthodox Judaism states that “This is an issue of critical
constitutional and moral significance which Jewish tradition clearly
speaks to. We believe that the recognition of a constitutionally
recognized right to die for the terminally ill is a clear statement
against the recognition and sanctity of human life….”
It is clearly evident that religious influence upon PAS deems such an
act as going against one’s Creator, and as such, the need to pray and
discern the direction of one’s life and dying should be in the
consultation of clerical status of one’s own faith. To override such
influence would take an autonomous individual whose beliefs have taken
him or her from what can be known religiously to what can be known
through them by the same force that gave them life. It is here that
terminal patients choose a course of action from the core on one’s
being transcending his or her belief in their creator (religiously)
leading to an active participation of one’s assessed values (personal
transformations) that includes their religious influence, but it is not
limited to it as well.
Samuel Oliver, author of, "What the Dying Teach Us: Lessons on Living"
For more on this author; http://www.soulandspirit.org
