Hi all. Newbie here. Hope this is the right place to post this.
Just got off the phone with my fundy mom. After watching a tearful Keith Olberman last night, pleading with people to talk to their loved ones about end of life issues, I sacked up and brought the subject up with mom. Her children range from extreme liberals to Sarah Palin Cheerleader types, so I know that if she didn't specify her wishes, her children would fight over "what is best for mom" when she was no longer able to determine her own care.
I told her "All of your children will *think* they know what is best for you and what you would *really* want - but it would be best if you just put what you really want in your own handwriting. So that there can be no question." She told me that she would never, under no circumstances, want anyone to "pull the plug" on her. No matter how vegetative she was, no matter how long she existed in this condition. I responded "Well, now I know that, and I would stand up to anyone who wanted otherwise. It would just be a lot easier if you would write that down."
But inside, I was a little mystified. This is a woman who says "Heaven is my home. Can't wait to be home where I belong," etc. and yet she is mortified at the thought of ending her own vegetative state. You know that she's not alone. The Terry Schivo case, for instance. The uber-religious seem to be absolutely fixated on...well, NOT going to heaven.
Why is that? Is it really "sanctity of life"? (Then why do these same people cheerfully support wars, death penalty, etc.) Is it a sneaking suspicion that they might be wrong about the heaven thing? Is it fear of disobeying god's "perfect plan"? Even though I was a fundy for years, this has always stumped me. What're your thoughts on this?
im sure im somehow looking at this the wrong way, or thinking it through in the wrong frame of mind. but this life is the only guaranteed life. The only life we KNOW we have.
This type of behavior has puzzled me as well. There are way too many factors to be able to arrive at a conclusion. Maybe you should ask her.
Here is a small list of reasons why she may not want someone to unplug her (these are speculations) and none of them may be the real reason.
1: If she views pulling the plug as murder she doesn't want to have someone damned over her :-/
2: Maybe she wants all of her spoiled children to take care of her o.O
3: This life will be over when its over and she doesn't need help from someone to end it :-/
4: Maybe she thinks that someone will invent something to get her out of that vegetative state and just needs time T~T
5: Maybe she really doesn't believe anymore ^_^
The list can go on and on. We need a Christian to come in here and answer that question.
Quote from: "LoneMateria"This type of behavior has puzzled me as well. There are way too many factors to be able to arrive at a conclusion. Maybe you should ask her.
Here is a small list of reasons why she may not want someone to unplug her (these are speculations) and none of them may be the real reason.
1: If she views pulling the plug as murder she doesn't want to have someone damned over her :-/
2: Maybe she wants all of her spoiled children to take care of her o.O
3: This life will be over when its over and she doesn't need help from someone to end it :-/
4: Maybe she thinks that someone will invent something to get her out of that vegetative state and just needs time T~T
5: Maybe she really doesn't believe anymore ^_^
The list can go on and on. We need a Christian to come in here and answer that question.
LoneMateria i find #'s 1 and 3 very insightful.
While I don't think there any cases of the brain dead coming back there are a few instances of people in comas for long periods of time, like 10 or more years, waking up. However it is NOTHING like movies and T.V show us. First the body has basicly wasted away. No movement equals a total loss of muscle mass, joint deterioration, and bedsores. you don't get up out of bed anytime soon, if ever. Second there is often horrendous mental deterioration, sometimes a total reboot to infant mental state. Third if you are lucky enough to wake up and keep some metal compacity it will probably grately diminished.
I saw a show recently where a man woke up after 17 years (I think). The show took place a few years after he woke up. He was still bed riddden, moved and talked as though he had had a stroke, and had the memory of an alzhimer's patient. Though he did still have memories from before the coma he couldn't associate his aged family to those memories. Despite meeting his daughter several time he couldn't understand that the grown woman in front of him was the child he remembered. Looking at it unemotionally he was even more of a drain on his family, requiring the aditional care a massively hadicapped awake adult requires over a comatose one. This is basicly a best case senario.
If you are completly brain dead you are dead your body just doesn't realise it. Nothing of you remains, just a slowly decaying meat puppet that looks like you. I don't understand the desprate grasping for continued physical life when, especialy if you believe in heaven, you would be better off drifting away peacfully in your sleep rather then keeping an empty husk alive.
I'm sorry I REALLY don't understand the "I-can't-wait-to-get-to-heaven-but-don't-let-my-husk-die" mentality
I was in a coma for about 20 hours once, after having been "dead" for a period of somewhere in the neighborhood of 45-90 minutes (conflicting stories). I'm still basically recovering 2 years later. Or not; sometimes I feel like I'm getting worse. I'll find out when I see my doctor later this week.
To the OP, another speculation on your mom's motivations:
6. By signing a document that allows the plug to be pulled in the event of such a circumstance, she would, in effect, have committed suicide, thereby condemning herself to eternal hellfire. It doesn't have to make sense; remember, this is a fundy we're talking about.
Also....Have you ever read or heard anything about their supposed heaven that would put you in a hurry to get there? I haven't.