A little morning rant
Mar. 31st, 2005 07:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matilda36I know it's early, but I woke up with a rant that has been simmering while following the news on the Pope and Terry Schiavo and it's now ready to come out of my guts
Two stories have been dominating the media recently: the concerns for the Pope's health and the battle around Terry Schiavo.
My personal opinion is very simple: both these people are living in extreme pain and those around them should be allowing them to go in peace and do their best to make the passage more comfortable for them.
Instead they showcase them around (like the Vatican with the Pope), like if he was a Pope blow up doll, kept alive so they can sort out their dirty politics and have the replacement ready; or spend time doing the media circus rounds and going to another court while they know very well what the court will say, so they can look like martyrs (the Terry Schiavo's family).
I have cared for my mother in the terminal stages of mouth cancer. I know what a feeding tube is and the pain it procures. I know what a tracheotomy does.
For somebody who is dyeing (or dead like in the case of Terry Schiavo, whose heart has been beating for the last 15 years only out of her parents' incapacity to let go) they do nothing to improve the quality of life, instead they worsen it.
We live in a society in which medicine and religion seems to agree on only one thing: once you get sick you stop being a human being, and become a body for which a painful, scared dead is better than a pain free, peaceful death.
I find this concept mind blowing. I am more terrified of doctors than of cancer. I come from an high risk family, on both sides, but I simply refuse to take any of the routine checks I should (mammography etc.) because I am afraid of becoming simply another test subject, forced upon all manners of very invasive procedures all in the name of life.
I'd rather spend my time reading a book or looking after my garden. At least I know I will die in peace with myself and those around me, and not in an hospital bed, surrounded by beeping machines. I will not smell disinfectant, but my beloved aromatic plants. I am sure it would make my passage much better one and work marvels for my karma next life.
May both the Pope and Terry reach their place of peace and love with the least possible pain inflicted on them by those who say that love them.
Blessed be
Two stories have been dominating the media recently: the concerns for the Pope's health and the battle around Terry Schiavo.
My personal opinion is very simple: both these people are living in extreme pain and those around them should be allowing them to go in peace and do their best to make the passage more comfortable for them.
Instead they showcase them around (like the Vatican with the Pope), like if he was a Pope blow up doll, kept alive so they can sort out their dirty politics and have the replacement ready; or spend time doing the media circus rounds and going to another court while they know very well what the court will say, so they can look like martyrs (the Terry Schiavo's family).
I have cared for my mother in the terminal stages of mouth cancer. I know what a feeding tube is and the pain it procures. I know what a tracheotomy does.
For somebody who is dyeing (or dead like in the case of Terry Schiavo, whose heart has been beating for the last 15 years only out of her parents' incapacity to let go) they do nothing to improve the quality of life, instead they worsen it.
We live in a society in which medicine and religion seems to agree on only one thing: once you get sick you stop being a human being, and become a body for which a painful, scared dead is better than a pain free, peaceful death.
I find this concept mind blowing. I am more terrified of doctors than of cancer. I come from an high risk family, on both sides, but I simply refuse to take any of the routine checks I should (mammography etc.) because I am afraid of becoming simply another test subject, forced upon all manners of very invasive procedures all in the name of life.
I'd rather spend my time reading a book or looking after my garden. At least I know I will die in peace with myself and those around me, and not in an hospital bed, surrounded by beeping machines. I will not smell disinfectant, but my beloved aromatic plants. I am sure it would make my passage much better one and work marvels for my karma next life.
May both the Pope and Terry reach their place of peace and love with the least possible pain inflicted on them by those who say that love them.
Blessed be
