Saying No to the Culture of Death

There are many diseases that cause people to be in constant pain. People who suffer from a variety of forms of arthritis are very familiar with the pain associated with the disease. Personally, I have been diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis. It has taken 18 years when the symptoms first began to be truly noticeable to get a diagnosis. In that time I had been in a lot of pain. For years I have existed on pain killers as well as the NSAIDs, including Mobic, Celebrex, Orudis and other types. I have also been diagnosed with clinical depression. There is a connection between the pain of these conditions and depression. The question that needs to be honestly answered: which came first? I suspect that the Ankylosing Spondylitis came first, but there are other reasons behind my depression.

People who have a condition that causes severe pain need to have the causes of their pain recognized by their health providers, as well as by family and friends. Perhaps I can illustrate this best by providing more information about my own background and my struggle with ongoing pain. In 1959 my family was involved in a near fatal accident. We know now that we suffered Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome as a result of that accident. In those days this syndrome was not recognized, and to be honest many of our ongoing family problems have their roots in that car accident. I suffered what appeared to be minor injury, having a cut on my forehead just above my left eye that required several stitches. Since I have no memory of the actual car accident, but I do remember climbing from my mother's knee in the front over to the back minutes before the accident, I do not know if I was in fact thrown from the car. The head injury indicated that I had hit my forehead on something. I am also aware that for a short time I was unconscious because I woke up in a room where I was on a bed surrounded by strange men in white coats. I was allowed to go free and then we were transported by ambulance (I do not remember any of that trip) to the Alfred hospital, and from there I was placed in a taxi, the driver picked up my paternal grandmother, and then we were taken to my home. Please keep in mind that I was four years old when this very traumatic event took place. One of my sisters nearly lost her life as a result of that car accident, but the doctors cared for her and she survived. As a result of my minor head injury, I suffered from concussion, and I had very severe headaches. The reason for outlining this story is that my headaches were not acknowledged by my family, the lawyer who took charge of seeking compensation, and my doctors. No one believed a child of four could have headaches. This lack of acknowledgement of my head pain caused me no end of trauma and I believe was a contributing factor to my depression. There are other more personal factors that I do not need to divulge here.

Having suffered both pain and depression, I am familiar with both mental and physical suffering.  There was a time when I would have wanted to commit suicide because of mental anguish and I am no longer afraid to admit that such thoughts have passed through my mind. There are millions of people all over the world who have endured the same pain and mental anguish that I have experienced. There is that point when in the midst of that suffering we hit rock bottom. What some do not realise is that by hitting rock bottom, we have reached a climax in that mental anguish, and within the future we can look forward rather than staying within the chasm of suffering. If we allow God's grace to work within us, we can at least find peace within. Looking to the Cross and remembering the torture that was suffered by Jesus Christ on our behalf serves as a constant reminder that there is one man who underwent unimaginable pain for the sake of all of humanity, so that we would be saved from the chains that bind us to the slavery of sin. Our own physical and mental suffering pales into insignificance when we ponder the events surrounding the arrest of the man who is known as Jesus Christ, his trial, torture and death upon the Cross. The people who reject Christ and refuse to allow God into their lives tend to be so egocentric that they think that they have the right to kill themselves rather than accept their pain and anguish, and then dealing with the same. What is worse than the egomaniac who is so self-centred that death becomes the only option for mental pain, are the doctors, especially in Belgium and Holland, who are prepared to offer the mentally ill an assisted suicide package so that they can end their lives. These are the doctors who deal exclusively in the Culture of Death. Why did they choose the medical profession if they wanted to become killers?

There are ways of treating the mental anguish of a person who is suffering from mental illness. Since I have received psychological therapy, I am well aware of the alternatives that are available for people like myself who have suffered so much at the hands of others. One of the best alternatives is a therapy that is known as CBT or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. It is possible to treat people who want to commit suicide, and yes it is possible for such people to end up returning to their mainstream activities as well as becoming people who are more self-confident. The offering of assisted suicide does nothing to assist men and women who have been diagnosed with a mental illness or a mental disorder. They can be helped with the use of medication such as lithium, or even Zoloft which is an SSRI.  Some people who have become depressed have developed a chemical imbalance which is due to the lack of serotonin to one's brain. There are also other methods for dealing with pain, and these methods are taught by a pain management team. It is possible to teach people who have genuine pain to learn to focus less on the pain and this can be done through such things as meditation, or even an exercise program such as Tai Chi can assist in shifting that focus away from the pain.

My concern here, is that quite often a person who is suffering from pain is treated as though she or he is a hypochondriac. What is worse, in some cases the person who is indeed quite ill is treated by family members as though she or he is a burden to the remainder of the family. When people are treated as though they are a burden to others the psychological impact of that treatment is to increase the propensity to become depressed. That form of treatment is telling the person that he or she is not loved sufficiently by the other members of the family and for that reason the thoughts that start taking shape is that under these circumstances one would be better off dead. If the family members do not believe in psychological counselling and the way in which it can help the family to see things in a different light, then that person has little confidence in being able to come to terms with the pain of the disabling condition as well as the lack of overall support from family members. When this kind of situation exists those people are the type who are so vulnerable that they become prey to doctors who are dealers in death, such as Philip Nietzche.

One of Nietzche's victims is a woman by the name of Nancy Crick. This woman was not in fact dying, but she was led to believe that she had cancer and that she was going to die a painful death as a result of her non-existant cancer. Nancy also went along with the propaganda of the Australian Euthanasia society. The truth about Nancy, that only came to light after her death was accomplished, was that she did not have cancer and that she was severely depressed. Philip Nietzche took advantage of Nancy Crick's depression to the point that she truly believed that she had cancer. This belief made her a willing pawn of Nietzche who was pushing for assisted euthanasia of those who wanted to kill themselves. Nancy had made a video about why she wanted to die, and this was used for publicity purposes to promote euthanasia on demand. It was only after Nancy followed through with the help of Nietzche, with her own death, that the autopsy revealed that she did not have cancer. If Nancy Crick had received proper psychiatric assessment and counseling, as well as better community support for her depression she might be alive today. 

In Holland, a doctor has admitted that he helped a young woman of less than 25 years to commit suicide because she was depressed or mentally ill. Now there is a new push to allow doctors to put the mentally ill to death if they desire to commit suicide. This is going down the same road that was taken in the days prior to the implementation of the final solution in Germany. It is a dangerous path, and it is sending a message to those who are disabled and mentally ill that they are not valued members of society.  The whole idea of killing people simply because they are mentally ill is truly anathema to me. It is so very wrong both morally and ethically to participate and to support such a move. The mentally ill, the disabled, and the most vulnerable members of society need our support, not a death sentence.

We have now reached a moment of truth with regard to following the Culture of Death. Do we continue to allow these things to happen within our midst or do we make the decision to stand up and fight against these new forms of injustice that are being cleverly disguised as a civil rights issue? Instead of supporting the idea that it is ok to put people to death claiming that they have no quality of life, I think that it is time to evaluate the motivations of these merchants of death. It is also time to evaluate the impact of these situations upon our own moral and spiritual lives. Participation in the Culture of Death is an assured spiritual death sentence. People such as Peter Singer and Dr. Death Cranford, for example do not believe in God, and for that reason they believe that there is nothing wrong in condemning another person to die via euthanasia. Dr. Death Cranford, Dr. Death Kervorkian, and Dr. Death Nietzche have no problem with the idea of killing others because they believe in their own omnipotence. They think that they have the right to play God with the lives of others, and to anticipate what only God can decide. They are the ones who constantly and calmly promote death on demand for the most vulnerable members of society. As a result they have paved the way for the unscrupulous to take advantage of the most vulnerable citizens within society, forcing them into guardianship situations, stripping them of their assets and then neglecting them to the point of their dying via starvation and dehydration. 

This is an unacceptable situation and it is time that the public at large started to have a rethink over these issues. Anybody who thinks that starvation and dehydration is a painless way for someone to die is fooling himself because that form of death is excrutiatingly painful for the victim. A person who is described as neurologically awake feels pain and if that person is forced into dying in such an horrendous way, then that person has been murdered. This is what is happening on a daily basis. If a person is dying from something like cancer, then yes there is a point when the body begins to shut down and food is being rejected. We do not have the right to anticipate that moment of death by taking matters into our own hands. We also do not have the moral right to assist a depressed or mentally ill person to commit suicide. That form of assistance should always be classified as deliberate murder and the offender should be prosecuted. How far will society fall before there  is a final wake up call?