True death with dignity

Controlling life or death is only an illusion

Brittany Maynard's tragic death has skyrocketed to the top of news feeds for the past week.  The world waited in suspense as November 2 drew closer.  Would she choose to die or, as one of her final messages seemed to allude to, would she decide to keep on living?  But as we know, she did die.  As one author suggested, though, we will never know if her death was a free choice or one that was horribly influenced by the organization "Compassion and Choices" that hijacked Brittany's situation for their own benefit.

The loss of Brittany is certainly tragic.  The tragedies could continue to mount if people use her story as a catalyst for physician-prescribed suicide.  That's why another young woman with the same cancer shared her perspective on CNN:



Cancer has been in the news in Cincinnati lately.  Bengals' player Devon Still's four-year-old daughter is battling cancer right now.  Lauren Hill, a freshman basketball player at the College of Mt. St. Joseph, has been told she has until December to live.

There has been no talk of suicide pills or control of death for Lauren.  Instead, the entire city has rallied around her as she played her first (as she says, her first, not her last) college basketball game.  

Women like Lauren and Maggie Karner (above) are witnessing how to live, which is also how to die.  They are truly brave in submitting to the reality that we cannot control everything -- not death, nor life.  They are courageous in allowing their immense suffering to transform them and others, rather than to dominate them.

Pray for Lauren.  Pray for Maggie.  Pray for all who are faced with terminal diagnoses -- for the courage to live while dying.  

"Exploring Euthanasia through the Arts"

Jack Kevorkian's death has focused the world's attention on the topic of euthanasia. Barbara Nicolosi reflects on the media's treatment of the topic in her piece, "Exploring Euthanasia through the Arts."

To whet your appetite:

If we lose the fight on euthanasia, we lose our souls. By removing suffering and the meaning of suffering from our culture, we make the final step in denying and defying our creature-hood. Once again, the seductive lie of Eden will trip us up: “If you will do this thing, you shall be like God.”

And:

If we would save our culture from this latest onslaught, we believers need to adopt the spirit of a new crusade. Christians who have been blessed with means must shift attention and support to intelligent efforts to combat support for euthanasia in our culture. Musicians, storytellers, and filmmakers of faith must find new ways to communicate the truth of human dignity and the value of suffering. In this fight, it may be that our best weapon is the power of beauty.

Read it all here.

Update on Dan Crews

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Dan Crews, a quadriplegic in Antioch, IL. The blog post (and a corresponding article on Catholic Exchange and blog post on Reflections of a Paralytic) urge people to send encouraging words and letters to Dan.

Apparently they are. I accidentally came across this article today. Praise God, and keep the letters coming!

"Revealing Love to Dan"

A slightly longer piece of mine about Dan Crews is on Catholic Exchange today. Check it out here.

Confronting a will to die with a right to be loved

"I feel like I'm the only person in the country who does not have a way or an option to kill myself."

So said Dan Crews, a 27-year-old man in Antioch, IL, who became a quadriplegic at age 3 as a result of a car accident.

I read about Dan this afternoon. In articles here and here, his quest to die is described in a tone that seeks to elicit sympathy from the reader. But while sympathy for Dan's condition and situation is one thing, sympathy for him to die is another.

Even Dan's own mother is quoted in the Journal Sentinel article as saying, "I would rather the decision be his, and if he wants to (die), yes, I'll back him to the hilt; if he wants to stay, I'll back him to the hilt."

One can't help but think of John Paul II's words in the background of Dan's account of a life with, "No education prospects. No job prospects. I have no love prospects. All I want is to no longer live like this." In his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, John Paul II wrote, "Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it" (#10).

And here is a tragic story that highlights the truth of John Paul's words. A young man with no friends, with a father away with his new wife, with a mother whose view of love is not willing the good of the other but of "whatever you want," with a television set to pass the time and a dwindling bank account to measure life's worth.

Even if he doesn't yet perceive it, Dan's life has immeasurable worth. He is not what he does, but who he is. And who he is, is a gift from God -- created by eternal Love. How can he come to see his life as a gift? To think of Dan's opportunities to offer his suffering for others, his time to write his own reflections, his possibility of interceding for the intentions of the world, his ability to be a witness to the dignity of all human life!

But how is Dan to know that his life is a gift if he does not encounter authentic love? So, here's the opportunity for the rest of us. Dan's address is publicly listed in the phone book. So we can send him an encouraging note, a Christmas card, a word of inspiration, a promise of prayer.

And perhaps Dan's life will be touched and transformed by the power of love. Maybe over time Dan will no longer mean what he was quoted as saying in one article, "Unless someone breaks into my house and kills me or there's a drive-by shooting where I live, I can't win this fight." Maybe this Advent and Christmas Dan can receive the gift of knowing that his life is a gift, not a moment of defeat.