The religious stance against physician assisted death for the terminally ill - is wrong

The Canadian Supreme Court, on February 6, 2015, ruled that Canadian adults with grievous and irremediable medical conditions are entitled to end their lives with the aid of drugs administered by a physician. 

This ruling is on hold while the Canadian Government formulates legislation to regulate this approach to dying.

Physician assisted death in the United States is legal in the states of California, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. 

It should be legal in every State.

Physician Assisted Death is the right thing to offer to the terminally ill, despite the teachings of the Catholic Church and the Protestant Evangelical and Born Again Churches to the contrary.

Orthodox Jews and Muslims and others also have strong and contrary opinions that helping someone to die is taboo because "that is not what God wants".

Canadian Catholic leaders have stated that they oppose any sort of physician assisted death and that it is unacceptable in a truly just and ethical society.

We do not agree with this approach to justice and ethics. 

A female relative of a contributor to this website died in November of 2015. She had colon cancer and suffered with it for 7 years. She underwent numerous surgeries and procedures. She was forced to wear a colostomy bag and underwent numerous chemotherapy and radiation sessions. Her hair fell out and she ended up weighing 85 pounds because she was too sick to eat. All of these medical procedures disturbed her and her loved ones, but she carried on, stoically.

Eventually, the cancer spread further and she was placed in a hospice where she was placed under palliative care. "Palliative care" is another phrase for the "mini-death" in which one floats in a drugged up coma, gnawed at by internal pain, waking up hungry but there is no food for the dying; thirsty but there are only ice chips put to your lips now and then. Dying by thirst is one of the most painful and horrible of deaths. And then you drift off again into drug-induced dreams and nightmares. Only God knows what goes through your mind.

This woman's relatives prayed for her death to alleviate her suffering, but death did not come. It took two weeks for her to finally die in bed. She looked like a tiny, bald, weak bird. She did not look like an adult woman.

"People of Faith" including Catholics and Born Again and Evangelical Protestants,

God give us mercy.

and Orthodox Jews and Muslims, and others, often think that God wants us to be subjected to:

Fear, Guilt, Remorse, Pain, and Suffering - endlessly, from the cradle to the grave.

We do not agree with this concept of the Higher Power and His intentions, despite religious teachings to the contrary.

If anyone of sound mind who is terminally ill asks to be given a drug to end their life and to have a peaceful death, they should be allowed to do so.

At the time of our death, we will all ask for mercy and not for religious dogma.

God knows that - and so do you.