AMERICA AT THE ABYSS

The following video was sent to me by Facebook.  It speaks to America about the horribly high stakes of the November election. It calls the nation to a national day prayer 40 days before election day. I urge you to watch it. What is at state this election is nothing less that the heart and soul of America. 

You know which party stands against biblical values and against a Christian world view. Christianity lies at the foundations of America. Please see the video here: "The Return." (There are forces at work to silence any call to repentance, including blocking this video. You may find that it's censored and unavailable when you try the link.) 

It is a critically important message to the nation for a spiritual and moral about-face, in what people of previous times called revival. And it is something that has weighed heavy on my heart. Thirteen years ago I wrote these words for the cover for this blog:

“Our once great western Christian civilization is dying. If this matters to followers of Jesus Christ, then we must set aside our denominational differences and work together to strengthen the things that remain and reclaim what has been lost. Evangelicals and Catholics must stand together to re-establish that former Christian culture and moral consensus. We have the numbers and the organization but the question is this: Do we have the will to win this present spiritual battle for Jesus Christ against secularism? Will we prayerfully and cooperatively work toward a new Christian spiritual revival ― or will we choose to hunker down in our churches and denominationalisms and watch everything sink into the spiritual and moral abyss of a New Dark Age?” 

America now stands at the edge of that abyss of that New Dark Age; Joe Biden and the Democrats will bring it to America. But there is still hope: National Christian revival. God's people must witness to their neighbours and other fellow-citizens about God's love for them and encourage them to give their lives to Jesus Christ. Spiritual awakening!

Look at a coin. What does it say? "In God We Trust." In your hand lies the answer to America's future prosperity and happiness.

MDP

The natural death of Samuel Golubchuk

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080213/life_support_080213/20080213?hub=Health, "Orthodox Jew to Remain on Life support, trial next."


Orthox Jew, Samuel Golubchuk (84), died of natural causes today at the Grace Hospital in Winnipeg, Canada. His family heroically defended their father's right to live until natural death. (See http://www.samuelgolubchuk.com/). For background see above story.

In short, Mr. Golubchuk's doctor's wanted to remove his respirator. And in the event that he committed the unpardonable sin of breathing on his own, they wanted to seal his fate by removing nutrition and hydration and administering morphine to allay the pain of dying of thirst and hunger. How merciful of them. Contrary to Right to die lawyer and space cadet, George Felos' claim, dying of starvation and thirst is not "peaceful" nor "beautiful." (See previous blog "Foreshadows of things to come")

Remember, this was in a Christian hospital!

Samuel's doctor's decided his case was "futile." Golubchuk's family strenuously objected to the hastening of their father's death. They considered it euthanasia. How very precise and exact of them. That's exactly what it would have been. They filed an injunction to stop it. Fortunately a Manitoba court ruled that he should continue to receive care.

Samuel Golubchuk's family believed that he should die a natural death without an impatient medical team trying to hurry the process. The doctors were incensed! One even resigned (how dare mere mortals contest his decision!)

In the end, after all the legal wrangling, posturing and pontificating by the Manitoba medical establishment, and the Graceless Hospital, ... Samuel Golubchuk passed away naturally.

Mr. Golubchuk's family can take consolation knowing they vigorously defended his right to life until natural death. By extension, they defended all of us who live compromised lives with chronic illnesses. None of are futile and nor is our care.

Rest in peace, Samuel Golubchuk.

Mark Pickup

Foreshadows of things to come?

Why is dehydrating and starving a dying or disabled person becoming acceptable? Howls of outrage would be heard if the same thing was done to a crippled animal. Take away food and water from a dying man and its death with dignity. Take food and water away from Fido when he’s in his last days and it’s an inhumane cruelty.

In 2005, disabled American Terri Schiavo was dehydrated and starved to death. Her estranged husband’s lawyer, and right to die champion, George Felos, described her death as “peaceful and beautiful”. Did he actually think the public was dumb enough to believe his despicable lie?

A few months after Terri’s judicial murder, my wife and I were visiting with Terri’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler. They described her death. It was not peaceful nor beautiful! It was dreadful, so utterly and unspeakably horrible. And so in respect to Terri’s memory, and her parents' feelings, I will leave it at that, and not give further description.

Foreshadows of things to come?

In the present climate of North America’s Culture of Death and abdication of its previous sanctity of human life ethos, I am at risk of meeting a similar fate as Terri’s, should my degenerative multiple sclerosis fall beneath some arbitrary standard for “quality of life.” After all, I am serious disabled with MS: If my current state of triplegia moves to quadriplegia, then on to being bedridden (and there's a strong possibility it will), I will be increasingly viewed as a liability rather than an asset to my society. I will be a financial burden to the state, or as the Nazi’s termed people like me: a “useless eater.” Some medical bean counter or bioethicist will impatiently tap his toe at the end of my hospital bed and think, “Time’s up, old man. We need this bed for a patient that medicine can actually heal.” Of course, in public or at the hospital ethical consultation, he will say my case is "futile". He may use any suitable reason to euthanize me that’s in keeping with respectable bioethical guidelines of Autonomy, Beneficence, Nonmaleficence or Justice.

Outcome justification

In his ground-breaking book Culture of Death: The assault on Medical Ethics in America (Encounter Books, 2000) Wesley J. Smith gave the following definitions:

Autonomy – “respecting the decision making capacities of autonomous persons.”
Beneficence – “providing benefits and balancing benefits against risks and costs.”
Nonmaleficence – “avoiding the causation of harm.”
Justice – “distributing benefits, risks, and costs fairly.”[1]

Let me speculate which it will probably be: Futile care -– although a case could be made for Beneficence or Justice. They could not say my starvation and dehydration was the exercise of my personal autonomy because I have been vocal all across North America against euthanasia and withholding food and water from people. Autonomy would be out. Nonmaleficence wouldn’t work either unless they presented the case that continuing to live would only cause further harm as new lesions develop in my brain and brain stem. No, best to stay with futile care. It would be cleaner and tidier and easier to refute family objections.

Perhaps in a magnanimous gesture they might administer morphine to dull the agony. Maybe by then bioethical medicine will have moved beyond the barbarism of starving and dehydrating us vegetables to death, and administer a merciful lethal injection without fear of prosecution. It's so much neater. By that time, public attitudes may have coarsened sufficiently toward the incurables that doctors who euthanize the severely disabled, handicapped and terminally ill will be viewed as humanitarians. They may even receive awards and honors.

This is what lies in the future, if people of good will do not stand adamantly against it. What else lurks the mists of the amoral 21st century to which North America is drifting (some would say careening)? What was that ancient Chinese curse?

Mark Pickup
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[1] These definitions are not Wesley Smith’s. He was quoting Tom L. Beauchamps, and James F. Childress, from their 1979 book Principles of Bioethical Ethics.

Living and dying with dignity

Francine Lalonde is a Quebec MP, and assisted suicide advocate. In 2005, she sponsored an assisted suicide bill into Canada’s Parliament (bill C-407). It was unsuccessful. Not to be dissuaded, Madam Lalonde pledged to introduce a new assisted suicide bill into the House of Commons. According to the Ottawa Sun newspaper Lalonde has “the backing of many MPs who believe the time has come to legalize assisted suicide in Canada.”

Don Babey, executive director of Dying with Dignity said, "There are cases I'm aware of every day of people who are just in torture, and there isn't any legal mechanism in Canada today for them to be free of it." Balderdash!

There is a wonderful mechanism to deal with physical pain. It’s called palliative care. There is no need for people to die in agony in the 21st century. Either Mr. Babey is unaware of this, or he's misstating his case to bolster his agenda.

Achieving complete pain relief

The head of palliative care at the Canadian University of Ottawa Medical School, Dr. John Scott, has said:

"The World Health Organization has demonstrated that access to pain-relieving drugs, along with a simple educational program, can achieve relief in the vast majority of patients. Specialists in various parts of the world estimate these basic approaches can control 85 to 98 percent of cases. The remaining cases require more careful attention and the use of multiple drugs and therapies to achieve complete relief. The technology and expertise to deal effectively with the problem of pain has already been developed. Poor pain relief, when it exists, can usually be traced to problems of education and resource allocation." [emphasis added] (Gentles, Ian, ed. EUTHANASIA AND ASSISTED SUICIDE: The Current Debate. Toronto: Stoddart Publishing, 1995, p. 96.)

Personal experience

I can personally attest to this: My mother died of cancer in July 2006. She had wide-spread bone cancer (notorious for excruciating pain). It spread to her lungs, brain and soft tissues. In short, she was riddled with cancer. Yet her pain was well controlled and she died peacefully, without pain, surrounded by the love and support of friends and family. This was achieved without putting her into a drugg induced mental haze. All this was done in a small Canadian prairie hospital under the care of a general practitioner who took the time and concern to stay current with the latest pain management techniques. Good state-of-the science of palliative care. If this can be done in a remote area out on bald Canadian prairies , why not major centers?

Decriminalizing or legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide would ultimately strip legal protections from sick and disabled citizens that other Canadians enjoy. Laws and policies pertaining to assisted suicide must not be relaxed. Canada must resist pressures to accept euthanasia and assisted -- and so must other countries.

My journey with multiple sclerosis is slowly destroying me. Yet pain, nausea, spasms and many other unpleasant symptoms of MS have been well controlled. At an emotional level, my family has lifted me up as someone of value, even when I doubted my own value. Pain of the body is easy to control. It is heartache, emotional pain and agony of the soul that are not easy to allay. Love is the only antidote for that suffering.

Achieving real Death with Dignity

There is no need for assisted suicide or euthanasia. There is a need for up-to-date palliative care to be available to all Canadians when they need it. If anyone is dying in pain in 2006, they need a new doctor. If doctors in Canada are euthanizing patients (as some people have suggested) they need to be prosecuted under Canada's Criminal Code. Our goal should always be to provide life with dignity not so-called death with dignity. People do not die with any more dignity than they live with. Dying with dignity is a process not an event. It is impossible to inject dignity into a person's bloodstream when they are at their lowest ebb. Any thinking 10 year old can figure that out.

The answer to pain of the heart and soul is not poison. It is found in love, understanding and acceptance. Give a man life with dignity and he will die with it.

Mark Pickup