Eileen's+Letter

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Dear Mr. Wesley J. Smith, First and foremost I’d like to thank you, for your time in working with us through this topic. It’s very daring to want to receive closed-minded and sometimes harsh opinions. So again, thank you! Since we know more about you, then you do us, I’d like introduce myself. My name is Eileen Miramontez, and I am a senior here at Foothill Technology High school. I enrolled in this class to further search myself and my beliefs. Being a person of the Christian Faith, my morals have a major role in my positions on ethical issues. Because I would like to pursue a career in Christina Ministry, I thought it’s essential to know where I stand on issues. And knowing what I believe, understand my reasoning, and being able to explain them and even defend them. And well this class is doing just that! Being the optimistic, happy person that I am, this movie broke my heart. Not just because of the depressing circumstances that Maggie would have to face, but the fact that ‘Million Dollar Baby’ in my opinion, gave life an insignificant value.

The Catholic Church shares the same idea that life is precious. And that no one has the right to take one’s life; “For it is a question of the violation of the divine law, an offence against the dignity of the human person, a crime against life, and an attack on humanity.” “Life is a gift of God, and on the other hand death is un-avoidable such a bold statement from one’s who believe that life is a gift. But the Catholic’s stand point is that passive euthanasia is okay, and morally acceptable; and active euthanasia is completely wrong. They also believe that refusal of treatment is justifiable. That “it should be considered an acceptance of the human condition…” If someone is coming from a non-religious life, then yes the Catholic Church’s view would be very hard to understand, and believe in. But as I am one who has faith in God, and that he has a plan for one’s life, I agree with, “The Declaration of Euthanasia.” Not only by euthanizing some you are not allowing God’s plan to live out, but you are defiling the image of God. Being that we are made in his image. But one thing that amazes me about our human nature is our perseverance. In the film "million dollar baby", Maggie Fitzgerald states: "I came into this world fighting, and I am going to leave fighting." I feel that she took the easy way out. The cowardly way out. Allowing her life to be nullified. And to be quite honest it sickens me. So many people often are battling and genuinely cling to life. But some people thinking pumping a syringe of morphine into their IV is the way to dignify life.

“Enough is enough. I want to die with my dignity intact. Please help me.” Pieter Admiraal Words doctors sometimes hear. Words few doctors act. And then there are those who live in the Netherlands. Pieter Admiraal a Dutch anesthetist at the Reinier de Graaf Gasthuis hospital in the Netherlands. In Admiraal’s view, “to fail to practice voluntary euthanasia under some circumstances is to fail the patient.” Admiraal said. Along with a Dutch Catholic chaplain, he felt that it was right to help one of his patients, Carla, with ending her life, from the pain and misery that further lied down the road of her fight with cancer. Admiraal knows himself that killing is morally wrong. But he feels that in certain cases, it can be justified. “I believe it was morally proper to help Carla to die in the way we did…. Carla would have died in a day or two, from ‘natural causes’… I believe it has little to recommend itself from the medical or moral point of view.”

To me, the Dutch don’t even bother offering hope. Sure, hope and warm loving thoughts and actions aren’t going to heal someone who is terminally ill. But it also doesn’t give the feel of you are you useless, so you should go die. Kind of harsh, but that’s the message it implies. If medically euthanizing becomes okay, well than if you are chronically depressed, or have a slight learning disability; then you should just die, because life is hard, and challenges, well if they get hard, just ponder them and quit. To me I just find that disgusting. “In his article, “The Note”, Chris Hill describes his horrific hang-gliding accident. He accepts that life does have obstacles, and never questioned why he had to be injured. But what he did feel was that “the legislature’s and the medical profession’s attitude of life at any cost was an inhumane presumption that amounted to arrogance” he angrily states. Hill doesn’t think being a quadriplegic from the neck down is a challenge, and doesn’t make him want to endure life at all. After living a life that most of us could only dream of, traveling, being a lover, hang-gliding, and all sort of adventures. From being a thrill seeking, charming young man, to a paralyzed from the neck down, can’t care for himself, depressed, life stuck in a useless body. Hill knew that there was nothing in his disabled life to live for. “I accept death- embrace it eagerly”. All that he would regret was the pain he would cause his loved ones. Is that so wrong? The man can’t take care of his own business… he has tried, but can’t see a point. He’s not going to be a “spectator”. He wants to live, or to die…

However in the case of Alison Davis, a woman who suffers from spinal bifida, believes life is still worth living. Alison didn’t let her disability stop her. She went to school and college, and got a degree in sociology, and now works defending the handicapped. “Who could say I have ‘no worthwhile quality of life’? She defensively says. She does see the positive side of living, and agrees that life should not be taken away from anyone, regardless of any form of disabilities. “The constant undermining of the rights of handicapped people” (Davis, 283). People; a word she uses. Handicapped are people too. And if we undermined them, the mentally sick, where will draw the line?

As the title of one of your books “A forced exit: the slippery slope of euthanasia to legalized suicide”, I do believe that euthanasia indeed is a slippery slope. If becomes legalized nationally, like Oregon and Washington, then where will it stop? If people can’t afford health care? Do we inject them too? Absolutely not! The U.S. Constitution says all American citizens have the right to life… never does it say when life gets hard, oh well, here is so morphine. It is not to say that battling a terminal illness or having a disability is easy. I understand that many people go through pain and agony. But they still have life. Life that is so sacred and precious, that can’t just be thrown out. If we allow this, like I said, where will it stop? When will depression be a factor? One feels like they no longer can live, but certainly can are we going to hand them a syringe too? What about the kids who have cancer? Who don’t know a life of normalcy…? How are we giving them hope, when people can take the easy way out?

The 9th amendment is often used to appoint rights, that aren’t stated. Some use the right to refuse medical treatment, to be considered through this amendment. And if that is so, many people believe that if they have the right to refuse, they should to have the right to choose. That they can decide if it is time to end their lives. Not that same. There is difference between letting nature take its course and letting yourself take life into your own hands. In April of 1996 my grandfather was diagnosed with aggressive lung cancer. After a while of chemo therapy, he and the doctor both realized that because it was stage 4, and he wasn’t improving, and the cancer was spreading the other lung, that stopping chemo wouldn’t affect him much. His life was slowly leaving us on the chemo or not. July 6th, was the day that he took his last breath. He may have stopped treatment, but no way in any form did he kill himself. Not on his own, or with the help from a doctor. He died because he had stage 4 aggressive lung cancer, spreading to both lungs, and not responding to chemo therapy. He died the way nature intended. He fought with every breath, which was a great struggle due to the cancer. He lived a great life, and dignified it by living, until his body could no longer live.

On the other hand there are people like Juan San Pedro. Where he was paralyzed and couldn’t get out of his bed. He did indeed fought nearly three decades, but was that enough. If he would have tried to better himself, maybe I could see a little more justification. But he lied and whined. He wanted to just kill himself, and no longer suffer. He didn’t want to be what he was, paralyzed, and not living a fulfilling life. He had other paralyzed people trying change his ways, but they just resulted into screaming arguments. To be honest, he didn’t try. Sure he went through something that no one should have to go through, but he didn’t but up enough fight.

Life is meant to be lived, at all times. If life were to be nullified, it’s to be “crime against humanity” as the Catholic Church states. Yes, every human will suffer, and face trails. But what is well life lived, if it’s not well suffered. If people with mental or physical disabilities, or patients who are terminally ill, get to be killed due to their bodies incapability of normalcy, what is that saying? Wouldn’t that almost be reflecting the Nazi times, where those with disabilities where killed? As a society, those with medical hardships should be given hope, happiness, liberty and life. Not just given an exit, because some feel it would be best. If euthanasia is allowed nationally, the United States would be a country of death. Most like the Netherlands where, “ 8.5% of all deaths are attributed to assisted suicide and where Dutch doctors have rapidly moved from euthanizing the terminally ill, to the chronically ill, to the depressed with no organic disease, to killing infants born with birth defects” (Smith). As a country that is made famous for being guaranteed through the constitution, the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. That is most definitely not what those words were founded upon. The way I see it, if we go back before medical advances, what did people due when they were born with disabilities, or develop terminal illness? We certainly didn’t drown them, or stone them. I see no difference. The only way to dignify life is to live. To stick out and endure what life throws at you. Life is meant to have obstacles, and running out when the going gets tough; well that’s a slap in the face to life. Jean-Dominique Bauby, a journalist who suffered an accident leaving him with “Locked-in Syndrome”. Meaning he was completely paralyzed, and couldn’t even speak. Doctors finally discovered that he was fully conscience Did he give up, most definitely not. I think that life should be endured in all case. It will be hard, but if you have hope in humanity; and your self, and support, love and the proper care, one will be able to be resiliant and persevered through all circumstances.