Christian's+Letter

Dear Mr. Wesley J. Smith,

Hi, my name is Christian Giammichele and I am a senior at Foothill Technology High School in Ventura. I am 17 years of age and was raised catholic. Being raised catholic I have a respect for life and all that it entails and believe it should be protected. At the same time I have been around many different types of people who have different stances on issues than me and have shown me their side of the argument. On one hand I believe that we all have a choice to do what we want, when we want it and how we want it including the right to die. But on the other hand I see committing suicide or helping someone to commit suicide as morally wrong and a coward’s way out. In this letter I hope to express to you the way I view the topic of euthanasia and the reasons why I am conflicted over the subject and cannot reach a conclusion as to which side I ally with.

In the article by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith it describes euthanasia as a sin equivalent to murder, “intentionally causing one’s own death, or suicide, is therefore equally as wrong as murder.” When I hear the faith that I grew up with call something equivalent to murder it instantly makes the matter of great weight and seriousness. It makes me think about the consequences of that action and why they would put it up there with something as serious as murder. When I think of suicide and murder I think of hell and burning forever and to be honest, it scares the living daylights out of me. Forever is a looonnggg time and I don’t know about you but I don’t want to spend eternity in hell when I could have endured a few more days, weeks or years of suffering. Pain is temporary and I believe that the mark of a true man is shown when you are suffering but you go on anyways and finish what you started. Like in cross country when you’re running and all you want to do is stop because it hurts incredibly bad, but you go on anyways. Now the subject of euthanasia and suffering is a little different from cross country because in terms of euthanasia you die and all but the principles of enduring and suffering are all the same. At the same time I think that each and every human has a certain pain tolerance and beyond that is unspeakable pain that we can only attempt to explain in words. I know that if it comes to me dying a horrible death then I’m going to want to be doped up on morphine and all the painkillers possible. Luckily the Catholic Church supports the use of painkillers, just not for the use of killing someone. So I will accept only the prescribed amount. Now they say suffering is something Christ did for us on the cross was what saved us from sin and that it holds a special place in God’s saving plan but why would he want us to suffer at the end of our lives? It doesn’t make much sense to me at all, I mean if you lived your life and lived for every moment and for God why would he make you suffer at the end? I know that afterwards there may be a whole new beginning for you or just simple oblivion. I am honestly not entirely sure about the whole subject of god and everything yet. I have my doubts about it. I really do hope he exists but I have mixed thought about it. But this makes me lean to being against euthanasia because of my faith and everything.

I wish to live life to the fullest and enjoy every single moment and every day. Much like Chris hill did in his life. The man had some incredible experiences and got to do things most people can only dream about. Now I’m definitely not saying I would want to have a threesome with some random people I don’t even know because to me that’s just begging to get some STD or something. And besides it’s also against my moral values to have sex with a bunch of people. But to do some of the things he got to do and to feel so free must have incredible and to suffer a fate that makes it so that you can’t even move 90% of your body would be terrible. My whole life I have been an active person and I have always been involved in a sport. I live and breathe for exercising, playing soccer, running and doing some type of sport. One time in my life I had to be off of my knees for a total of 6 months. Not being able to do any exercise or sport absolutely killed me and gave me a whole new appreciation for sports and even something as simple as walking. I can’t even imagine being stuck in a bed all day without being able to move my arms, legs or body. Whenever you see someone walking it must be torture to know that you used to be able to do that and that you will never be able to again. I understand where Chris is coming from in the respect that it is horrible to not be able to move and that life would seem to have no meaning. But at the same time I think that he could have possibly done something better with his life. I think he could’ve become a speaker and talked to kids or helped an organization raise awareness of what happened to him so it doesn’t happen to others. As for your stance Wesley, I don’t believe that everyone is destined to have a paintbrush in their mouth because everyone is different and being a motivational speaker or painter is not for every disabled person just like some people hate different jobs. I think it is stupid to paint all the flowers in a painting the same color because they are all different and unique flowers. What some people enjoy others do not and it is not up to us to decide for them what they want to be. In terms of him deciding to be euthanized I disagree with the decision that he made but at the same time I feel he has the right to make it. I don’t think killing a person is right whether it is for mercy purposes or not but then again I don’t know what I would do if someone asked me to end their life. I’m pretty sure I would say no but you never know the circumstances that life throws at you. And until they invent video games you can play with your brain and your eyes I believe a life of a paraplegic would be a very dull one for me. But that doesn’t mean I’d end my life, it’d just mean I’d have to find something else to make me feel like I’m living a fulfilling life. But if life had no meaning left then I can understand why a quadriplegic would want to be allowed to be euthanized.

In the Dutch city of Delft they are legally allowed to euthanize people. People from all over the world have come to have their family or friends euthanized. The people in the Netherlands view it as mercy killing and I have nothing against that. Mercy is one of our greatest traits as human beings and it is one of the contributing factors of what makes people human. And allowing your family member to die with as little pain as possible is most definitely an act of mercy. But at the same time I’m not sure whether I agree or disagree with it because according to the Catholic Church you’re basically the same thing as a murderer. So you’re ending their suffering but at the same time you’re taking up a cross of your own because you are now considered a murderer and you don’t know how to forgive yourself or how to move on from it. I think it might just be better to not kill them because they only have to live with the pain for a few days or weeks while you have to deal with your own internal conflict for a lot longer. But then if you don’t help them die you’ll always know that you weren’t there for them when they needed you the most and that you abandoned them just like Peter abandoned Jesus on his last day. I don’t want to be the guy who just leaves someone in pain and tries to push that fact of out his mind for the rest of his life. It’s something that will haunt you for the rest of your life. Knowing that when your best friend wanted you to be there for them you decided to just walk away. That’s something that would be hard for me to do but given the choice between the two I think I would choose to walk away because the catholic side in me tells me that it’s not ok to take another human life except in rare circumstances and this is not one of them.

Alison Davis was born handicapped and was given the chance to live while many handicapped born children nowadays that are like her are not allowed to live. For that she is eternally grateful because now she has been given the chance for life and the chance to get a degree and enjoy time with her mom and dad. This is one of the things that I only see from one side because I believe killing an innocent baby just because they’re handicapped is wrong. They deserve the chance to live just like the rest of us. We do not know how they are going to turn out just as Alison’s parents didn’t know how she would turn out but they refused to give up and they ended up with a successful child. If you never take a shot you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. So why should you abandon a child early in their life when you’ve never given them the chance to prove everyone wrong. I wasn’t born with a handicap like this woman and for that I am eternally grateful. But I did come out with fluid in my lungs and had to be taken away from my mom before she could even hold me. The doctors got the fluid out and I turned out to be ok but had they not had modern technology I might have died at birth. With today’s modern technology we can do amazing things that we never used to be able to do. Even something as simple as a cold could be deadly over 400 years ago. Nowadays we take an antibacterial, some airborne and we’re over our sickness in less than a week. It’s amazing what we can do as a society nowadays. So give the kids a chance to live and don’t just euthanize a kid because they have overwhelming odds against them.

As you can plainly see my stance on Euthanasia is a constant battle between my morals, what I think I would do in that situation and what I think is a reasonable course of action for each condition. I am strongly against the principles of murder which you’d think would lead me to be against Euthanasia but at the same time if I had a terrible injury like Chris Hill’s injury I’m not sure whether I’d want to be euthanized or not because I wouldn’t want to spend the rest of my life in a bed and feeling like a burden to other people. The catholic church says it’s wrong to kill and that euthanizing someone is murder and a part of me wants to stay with what the church says because it feels like it’s the right thing to do but on the same token I don’t agree with the catholic church’s stance of condoms so who says they are always right. In terms of Alison Davis she was born in unfortunate circumstance in a fortunate time. I don’t believe we should just abandon a baby because they have a bad chance at survival. They deserve a chance and if we don’t allow them that chance what does that say we endorse as a society? It says that if the odds are against you, you should just quit because it’s impossible and you can’t do it. Almost anything is possible if you put your mind to it or the luck is on your side so let’s just see how some of the kids turn out. And as for the legal euthanization of people in Holland I think that if you are going to die in a few days you should bear the pain because in the end it will hopefully be worth the struggle. At the same time when I’m in that situation I don’t know how I’d react because pain can be unbearable at times and euthanasia seems like a peaceful and quick way out of the pain. All of that is why I am conflicted on the topic of euthanasia and I thank you for taking the time to read and/or listen to my letter.

Thank you, Christian Giammichele