Yes, Virginia, All Pro-Life Issues are Interconnected

I won't lie, I've been looking for an excuse to use this one. Source

So, they are running out of the drug for euthanasia in Oregon because drug companies are refusing to make the drugs used for lethal injections. What?!?! Two things:

1. They use the same drugs for euthanasia that they use for lethal injections? Don't they know that lethal injections aren't pretty nor are they foolproof. Just look at the recent botched executions. Granted, neither of them used the Nembutal. I hope that they don't resort to the new cocktail because of the Nembutal shortage. By the way, Nembutal isn't flawless either. 
2. I am a firm believer that the Holy Spirit works in everything, even those things that we think are immoral or don't like. God doesn't need perfection to do His work. This story has the potential to show people truth. On one hand, since people don't like the idea of murderers being murdered by the state, we're running out of drugs to kill off our sick and dying. Hopefully, that will help more people to understand that murder is wrong whether it's an individual killing another individual, the state killing someone, or a doctor killing someone in the name of "medicine." Where is the consistency in defending the lives of criminals, but not the ill and dying?

I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live -Deuteronomy 30:19

Keeping an Alzheimer's Patient Alive?

In Canada right now there is a court case in which a family is suing a nursing home for spoon-feeding their loved one.

Her advanced directives say that she does not want to be fed if she becomes incapacitated. She worked as a nurse and she's seen people die from Alzheimer's. She was abundantly clear with her loved ones that she did not want to die like that.

But the feeding isn't being forced upon her. She's opening her own mouth and swallowing the food. Although her family argues that it's just a reflex, I say that's irrelevant. The important thing is she is doing it, so on some level she's feeling hunger and she's eating.

They say she's in a so-called "vegetative" state. She has to be transferred using a lift. She spends her day in bed or in her wheelchair. Eating is likely one of the only things she can do anymore. And again, that is also irrelevant. Euthanasia is always wrong.

I think my opinion in the case is pretty clear, but this is where it gets murky. The nursing home has threatened to call the police if her family tries to take her out. They have refused to transfer her to a hospice. I think the nursing home is overstepping it's bounds in those respects.

Source

No, she should not be denied food that she is eating on her own, but that does need to be balanced with the family's rights. The family is wrong in insisting that she starve to death. The nursing home is wrong in not letting the family move her. Yes, she needs to be protected from abuse. But, it's still her family.

I've seen people die from Alzheimer's as well. It is not a pretty way to go, but no way is pretty. As Dr. House said (Edited for language):

"Our bodies break down, sometimes when we're 90, sometimes before we're even born, but it always happens and there's never any dignity in it. I don't care if you can walk, see, wipe your own [butt]. It's always ugly. Always. You can live with dignity, we can't die with it."

This case in part shows how advanced directives can be tricky. No one can account for every possible circumstance. Who knows, she might have been only referring to getting a feeding tube or hydration through an IV. Spoon-feeding is not unreasonable, especially if it's not forced. As one person noted on Free Republic, if spoon-feeding becomes optional, what next?

Also, how can we judge her quality of life? We don't know what it's like until/if we get into her shoes. Quality of life arguments have always bugged me. Only the person living the life can judge it's quality and, again, I question the relevancy of the question.

So, if quality of life, how conscious she is of eating and her disabilities are all irrelevant, what is relevant? She's a human being, for starters. Even from a secular perspective, the value of human life has always been seen as an absolute good that can only be taken away for an important, grave reason.

From my religious perspective, life is a mysterious gift that is not ours to take away. God formed us in our mothers' wombs (Psalm 139:13), and only God can take us Home. It's like that Bill Cosby quote, "You know, I brought you in this world, and I can take you out." Only God can do that.

No, no she can't.

The most important thing in this case is that this woman is a child of God. Everything else is secondary. Primarily, she needs to be protected. Secondarily, her family has rights as her legal guardians and I'm not sure if this nursing home has not overstepped their bounds a little bit in this case. I'll be awaiting the outcome of this case. It will be an important decision setting precedence for or against euthanasia in Canada.

Despite Ethics Committee's Recommendations...

I really hate starting a post like this. "Despite ethics committee's recommendations..." Does anyone listen to ethics committees anymore? Ethics should not be left to the politicians.

Source.

Despite Ethics Committee's recommendations, the President of France has reaffirmed that one of his political goals is to bring voluntary euthanasia to his country. He says that this proposal "will complete and improve the (current) law which was already a step in the direction of human dignity."

What is dignified about telling the handicapped that their lives are worthless? About telling those in pain that their lives are worthless?

What about equating value of life with how "wanted" it is? If a parent doesn't "want" a child, it is not a child and can be disposed of. If a sick person does not "want" to live anymore, their lives are disposable and worthless. It is turning life into a commodity to be created and destroyed at the whim of anyone who has the power and the will. 

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

before you were born I dedicated you,

a prophet to the nations I appointed you. -Jeremiah 1:5

Even to your old age I am he,

even when your hair is gray I will carry you;

I have done this, and I will lift you up,

I will carry you to safety. - Isaiah 46:4

Inequality and the Death Penalty

In recent weeks, there have been two high-profile murder cases brought to trial, Jodi Arias and Kermit Gosnell. Gosnell, after a plea deal, has been sentenced to life without parole. Arias will likely be seeing the death penalty. What does that say about the American judicial system?

 

Kill one man brutally in one state and you're sentenced to die. Kill three newborns and lead to the death of a woman through gross negligence in another state and you're sentenced to life without parole. Does this seem right? Is this a fair and equal application of law that will ultimately lead to the perpetrator's death?

 

Disclaimer: I'm against the death penalty on moral grounds. Murder is murder, even if it's committed by the state, and murder is always wrong.

 

 

Now that I've gotten that off of my chest, there are some major inequalities in the implementation of the death penalty in this country.

 

For example:

 

• Only 50% of murder victims are white, but over 75% of the murder victims in cases in which the murderer was executed were white.

 

• 42% of the people on death row are black, but blacks only make up 13% of the general population of the US.

 

• If you murder someone in the southern or the western US, your chances of the death penalty is higher than if you lived up north or in the east. 

 

 

Justice isn't blind. It isn't blind at all. The death penalty targets blacks and it targets the poor. Even if you don't agree with me that the entire concept is immoral, you must agree that the system needs a radical overhaul. The poor need the legal counsel they deserve. There are people on death row due to ineffective defense counsel. Racism needs to get out of the courtroom.

 

 

 

 

For more information:

 

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/FactSheet.pdf

 

7 Quick Takes (#7) Warrior Momma Edition

--- 1 ---

There ain't nothing ugly about this picture. (Pardon the language though.)

Source: This awesome site called "How to be a dad"

--- 2 ---

 

This momma gave a part of her liver to her baby who couldn't wait any longer for a donor.

--- 3 ---

 

Women like Stacie Crimm, the mother of this little girl, who gave up cancer treatment for their unborn babies.



--- 4 ---

 

Of course, I'd need to mention the mothers who have scars across their guts and sometimes even deeper scars on their souls from births that went wrong. We've had a long, hard road to travel in recovering from our children's births. 

--- 5 --

 

A couple months ago, there was a tragedy in my neck of the woods. A man carjacked and kidnapped a mother and daughter. He tied up the mother and raped the daughter. The mother escaped and got the man's attention so the daughter could run away. The mother was murdered. The daughter is safe. The man is in prison, apparently having a hard time.

 

The mother clearly sacrificed herself for her child. She had the courage to sacrifice herself in such a horrendous situation so that her daughter could live. It's almost insulting to call her only a "warrior." She is clearly much more than that.

 

--- 6 ---

 

Doctors gave up this baby for dead, but this warrior momma gave her daughter skin to skin contact and within minutes her heart rate became normal and she was breathing on her own. All this mother wanted to do was to make sure "she didn't die being cold," but she ended up saving her life.

 



--- 7 ---

Source

 

And a talk about warrior mothers cannot be complete without birthmoms! These are the women who held on to their babies for 40 weeks, gave birth to them, and then gave them up for adoption. These women are no less mothers than the women who raised them. They did what all mothers have to do, sacrifice themselves for their babies.

 



For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Unrealistic Views about Death

I read an interesting op-ed from the Washington Post yesterday. It was written by a doctor talking about our unrealistic view of death.

In part, she bought into Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' myth that there once was a day when we weren't afraid of death, a day that never existed. But overall, I think that her words are well worth noting:

For all its technological sophistication and hefty price tag, modern medicine may be doing more to complicate the end of life than to prolong or improve it.

Amen.

Sequestering our elderly keeps most of us from knowing what it’s like to grow old.

This physical and emotional distance becomes obvious as we make decisions that accompany life’s end. Suffering is like a fire: Those who sit closest feel the most heat; a picture of a fire gives off no warmth. That’s why it’s typically the son or daughter who has been physically closest to an elderly parent’s pain who is the most willing to let go.

I have long noted how we seem to move our dying out into the nursing homes on the edge of town. I like her analogy, that "suffering is like a flame." Looking back at my years working in the nursing homes, I see how the family who had visited the resident every week are more willing to let go than the family that is flying in to make the final decisions. We cannot let our own fear of death cloud our judgment in caring for our dying loved ones. Even the Church says there is a time when people can be let go.

Directive 57 of the Ethical Directives for Catholic Health Care states:

A person may forgo extraordinary or disproportionate means of preserving life. Disproportionate means are those that in the patient's judgment do not offer a reasonable hope of benefit or entail an excessive burden, or impose excessive expense on the family or the community.

And you cannot make blanket statements in regards to what constitutes extraordinary treatment. An example used in my ethics class once: A dying woman is ballooning up and her skin is cracked and weeping because her body no longer processes fluids correctly. In a case like that, it is not unreasonable to forego IV fluids.

Death is inevitable. Doctors can do a lot to postpone it, but they cannot prevent it. Sometimes it's just time to let someone go.

  

The Old Order Has Passed Away: Reflection of the Fifth Sunday of Easter

He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away. -Revelation 21:4

A major component of my internship with Spiritual Care at the hospital was to have some kind of ritual to "enter in with the patient and their family." I had a hard time coming up with one. For one thing, I was in the ER so sometimes I didn't really have much time between visits and I definitely had no privacy to have a ritual. For another, except for things like the Rosary, I really didn't have a prayer life. The Rosary, even just a decade, was too long for a pre-pastoral visit ritual. Usually, I was lucky just to remind myself of the patient's name and what their presenting condition was.

About halfway through the semester, after being asked a half dozen times to get a ritual, I settled upon memorizing Bible passages. Every evening I'd pack an index card on which I'd have a passage written and between visits I'd work on memorization. This quote from Revelation, found in the second reading this week, was one of the quotes I used.

Source

Someday all of this is going to end. The mother mourning her dead child will hold that child again in God's kingdom. The person with the debilitating, fatal illness will finally feel healthy and whole again. The person born with a severe mental disability will be able to sit down and chat with you. Whatever is bothering you will finally be resolved.

While I wouldn't necessarily share this quote in a pastoral visit, it does give me comfort when I see so much suffering in the world. The person you're visiting might not be able to see that far into the future. Caught up in their pain, they just want their lives to go back to normal now. They don't care about some future world, they want relief now. I think we've all been there. As a part of the staff, I have more of an outsider view. From the outside, it's easier to take the longer view. It's easier to remember as I'm driving home that this is not forever.

This too shall end.

The old order. The society in which disease runs rampant. In which people go broke paying medical bills. In which uninsured can't get care until it's too late. In which car accidents happen. In which people shoot one another. This old order will pass away. Then God Himself will wipe the tears from all of our eyes and we will no longer suffer.

And in the meantime, we got cat pictures!

3 Christian Images for the Boston Marathon Bombings + 1

Anyone who has read this blog for very long knows that I think long and hard before I say anything about major news stories. I decided to cover this story using the same concept I used with the Newtown shooting, but I had a much harder time coming up with images. I could see the faults in every image that came to mind. So, please, know that I do not intend to be offensive in any of these.

1. The Good Samaritan

Speaking as someone who watched it all unfold on the news, I was among those struck by the sheer number of people who ran toward the blasts instead of away. By now, we've all seen those iconic photographs of people pushing wheelchairs and caring for the injured. One of the things that touched me most was the stories of runners running to the hospital to give blood. I think the longest I've ever run in my life was a mile. I can't imagine how tired these people were, but they literally went the extra mile and gave a pint of their own blood.

2. Paul's Running Metaphor 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

There are runners and spectators that are not going to walk, much less run, again due to injuries. Amputees and others are looking at long, hard therapy to return their lives to some semblance of normal. They need our prayers to support them through all of the work they have to do. They, in turn, will serve as an inspiration for those who watch them fight against the odds. They will truly be embodying the kind of discipline that Paul describes in this post. The last thing any of them need to be worrying about is the massive medical bills that will be coming from this. You can donate here.

3. "I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith" 2 Timothy 4:7 

There were three fatalities. All three were way too young to die, especially the 8-year-old. He had just had his First Communion. Our prayers are also with them and their families. I really have nothing else to say.

 

+ 1 "Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart." Hebrew 4:12

 I saw on a number of news outlets the dead Boston bombing suspect said that the Bible was a "cheap copy of the Koran" and that it was used to justify the US invading the Middle East. It is very disrespectful to say disparaging remarks about another faith's holy book. The Bible is very important to me and to many other people in the United States, just like the Koran was important to him. We need to stop attacking one another's faith. (That also goes for the idiots who burned a copy of the Koran and who said the Koran should be flushed!)

How Getting Sick Again Helped Me Heal from My C-section

This month has been harder for me than I thought it would be. My son's first birthday is coming up and all of the depression from his birth is bubbling up fresh. So, this week I will share two parts of my healing process. For background info, you can look at my first Ignitum Today article here.

Source

Even a routine surgery makes one think about death. Two months after James was born, I was scheduled to have surgery once again. This time it was my gallbladder. As I was growing up, both of my parents had to have theirs removed. My mom had hers removed shortly after my brother was born. My dad's was removed in an emergency as he had waited to the last minute to go to the hospital and his gallstones snowballed into much more serious problems. So, when I had my first attack while I was in the third trimester of my pregnancy, my family knew exactly what it was. Some people will have one attack and never have troubles again. I waited for a second attack before I did anything. When that second attack came, I found a doctor, I walked into the office, and I requested to have the thing removed. Within a month, I was on the operating table again.

The thing that bugged me most this time was going under general anesthesia. But I did my research and asked my questions and what it boiled down to is: the gallbladder is too close to the diaphragm. Local anesthesia would be more dangerous than general simply because of the gallbladder's location.

So, okay...I endured a month of eating like I was vegan again. I was blessed by the fact I had been vegan before so I knew all the tricks. I just used this as an excuse to buy all that really expensive but really good vegan food that I wouldn't be able to talk my husband into buying normally.  

Aww yeah! This is where this pic comes from, but there is some awesome expensive food on this table. Cuties are da bomb! 

But, back to death: I made sure I got to confession before the surgery. I said my prayers. And as I stared at the ceiling at 3 in the morning hyperventilating thinking about going to surgery again, I thought about my priorities.

What if I did die on the table? I had met patients in the hospital who had issues with the most basic of surgeries. I had even met someone who had a heart attack during a gallbladder removal surgery. What if that was me? What if I were living in my last days?

The first thing that struck me was a flood of overwhelming love for my husband and my son. Here I was in bed, my son laying on top of me (because he wouldn't sleep in his own bed...again) and my husband beside me. All I could think about was how much I was completely and madly in love with them both. I would do anything for them. They were (and are) my world.

I imagined myself in bed in a nursing home surrounded by family. I saw how James would look and I imagined his future brothers. What would matter to me then? That my eldest wasn't born the natural way? That I felt as if I had adopted my eldest son, as if he wasn't of my flesh? No, all that would matter to me was that he is my son. That all these grown men were my sons.* I would be going to meet our Maker and spend time with Him waiting for all my boys to arrive.

In the end, not even this writing would mean much to me. I have always wanted to be a writer and I'm still working on building a career, but what is a job? You can't take it with you. What would matter to me would be family and God. And maybe that order isn't right. We are told God should come before family (Luke 14:26). Hopefully I have a nice long life ahead of me to figure that out.

I came out of that surgery with a new appreciation for what I went through when James was born. Yes, it sucked. It still sucks a year later. I thinking about it right now makes my scar hurt. But in the end, it really isn't going to matter. When I'm dying, a lot of this stuff in life isn't going to matter.   

*Given my husband's family, I really, really doubt there will be any girls.  

What the Crucifixion means to me?

One of the most important aspects of my spirituality is the Incarnation. The infinite, loving, merciful God became one of us. In light of that, and my work with the sick and dying, the Crucifixion means quite a lot to me.

Source.

It means that God knows what it means to suffer and die. God knows what my residents and patients go through. He knows what I will eventually go through when my time comes. There is a great comfort in knowing that the Creator of the universe knows what a puny little being like me goes through.

And He loves me. He loved me enough to go through all of that. So, not only does God know what I'm going through from personal experience, but He cared enough about me to do it and now He walks with me through it.

A crucifix from a church in Minnesota (I think?). A classmate said that this crucifix was really scary looking. 

Jesus' experience on the cross wasn't your ordinary death either. It was one of the worst deaths you could imagine. He was abandoned by those he cared about. Regardless of what you see in the paintings, in reality, Jesus was likely naked. He probably died from asphyxiation long before the blood loss did him in. The Romans were experts in horrible, humiliating executions. So, whatever we go through, we can be assured that Jesus went through just as bad or worse.

Any discussion of the crucifixion is incomplete without the resurrection. But that's for tomorrow's entry. I hope the rest of your Triduum is fruitful. God bless.

Lessons from Death: A Palm Sunday Reflection

Thinking about this week's entry, I had no idea where to start. The readings this week really don't leave much to talk about. Facing Jesus' pending death (liturgically speaking), I have no idea what to say. For several years I worked with the elderly in nursing homes. Every day, I was faced with the prospect of one of my residents' dying. So, you could say, I know quite a bit about death. In light of Jesus' crucifixion, I would like to share two of those death stories with you.

Illustration from Ars Moriendi.

One of the earliest deaths I encountered was of a fairly young man. He was in his 50s, maybe? He was suffering from a lifetime of smoking and being extremely obese. His family blamed him for his health problems. They simply dropped him off in the nursing home and didn't come to see him again until after he was dead.

He was a fascinating person. I always wished I had talked to him about his life story. He had experienced life on both sides of care-giving. He worked caring for the severely handicapped and then he ended his life being cared for at the nursing home. I wonder what insights he would have had. He and I were the only liberals at the nursing home and this was shortly before Obama was elected the first time. We'd talk about politics all the time, grateful to have someone in this small town who agreed with us. He died only a couple days before the election and I made sure I voted in honor of him (and I've regretted my vote ever since, but that's another post for another time.)

He is the only resident I've ever had who I'm genuinely concerned about. He died very, very angry at everyone and everything. I could imagine him getting to the pearly gates and saying, "F-you, God! You treated me so horribly during life, I don't want to have anything to do with you in death! Where were you when my family and friends deserted me? Why did you let me fall apart and die before the age of 60?" I pray for his soul anytime that he comes to my mind.

I've seen crowds at the nursing home that would put the crowd at JPII's funeral to shame. 

But, now that I've shared an ugly death, let me share a better one. At another home I worked at, I had a resident that I knew for a whopping 3 hours. I came on to my shift and as the day-shift person walked me through my assignment, she pointed out a new resident to me. She was in her 70's but she didn't look past 40. She was a beautiful woman with bright eyes and flawless chocolate brown skin. The only interactions I had with her was her bath and her postmortem care.

Her room was full of family the whole afternoon. We didn't expect her to die, it's as if her family knew something we didn't. It came as a complete surprise when the nurse came and got me to prepare her for the funeral home. It wasn't even quite dinner time yet. The funeral home wasn't able to take her right away, though. It seemed as if half of St. Louis came to pay their respects. Family and friends were lined up down the hall. Small children were running around and playing all over my wing of the building. The other residents enjoyed seeing so many cute little kids. I found out later that while this woman never had kids, she had dozens of nieces and nephews and their children who she was very close to. Regardless of the inconvenience of working around these people for the rest of my shift, I was happy to see so many. It was the first and the last time I ever saw such a crowd while I worked in St. Louis. At other homes I worked at, this was the normal occurrence.

I don't know what it says about me that I associate "surrounded by people" with "a happy death." That'll have to be explored later. For right now, I have a few closing thoughts:

• Don't get me wrong. There is no such thing as a pretty death and don't let any pro-euthanasia activist tell you otherwise. Death is the great equalizer. It doesn't matter if you're homeless, you're rich, you're the President of the United States or you're the Pope. Everyone dies and in the very end, it all happens in much the same way. I'll spare you the grizzly details, but it's enough to know that it sucks and it sucks for everyone.
• What matters is how we live. St. Benedict often advised his followers to keep death always on their mind. I think this is very good advice. I think the world would be a better place if we all thought about death a little more. Not to be morbid, but death puts everything in life in perspective. All those petty little things that we occupy our time with, will they matter in the end? If it won't matter in the end, don't worry about it! We will all be spending a lot more time dead than we will be spending alive.
• We spend a lot of time, energy, and money running from old age and death. It is a race we will all eventually lose. Old age is not ugly. It is not something to run from. Even if we lose our abilities and wind up in a home, I can tell you right now that my residents have all changed my life for the better. I think we should have mandatory CNA service. Like young Israelis are required to work in the military for a couple years, I think we all should be required to be a CNA for a couple years. That way we'll have plenty of people to help the elderly. I know my work with the elderly changed me profoundly, I think everyone would benefit from the humbling task of helping another person with their daily activities.  

St. Benedict, pray for us!

Not 100% appropriate but it is one of my favorite songs of all time and I couldn't get it out of my head while writing this: "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult

Christian Personalism in Medicine

Being the medical ethics nerd that I am, I happily ate Victoria Sweet's God's Hotel up. This awesome book taught me a lot and gave me a lot of food for thought from a medical ethicist point of view.

Just so's you know, this book is part memoir, part manifesto. She mainly writes about her experiences working for the last almshouse in the US, Laguna Honda, in San Francisco. Her experiences at the hospital informs her studies of pre-modern medicine, particularly the recently declared Doctor of the Church St. Hildegard of Bingen. And her studies of Hildegard makes a big impact on her treatment of her patients.

St. Hildegard of Bingen

 There is a significant religious overtone to the entire book, although she rarely invokes explicitly Christian doctrine. She talks often about the anima, the life-force, that she believes is the main difference between the living and the dead. She does not speculate what happens to the anima after death. Her pilgrimage, the Compostela, seems to have a big spiritual impact on her as it teaches her that she has no real control over life, she just needs to roll with the punches.

But that's not what I'm here to principally write about, I'm here to write about the ethics of it all. She covers several diverse topics in ethics:

- The treatment of the poor
- The treatment of the mentally ill
- The treatment of the elderly
- The relationship between administration, the doctors, and the nurses
- Medical efficiency

An overall critique that she has is that the medical establishment does not really pay attention to patients anymore. I remember hearing once that in an appointment with your doctor, you only have your doctor's attention for maybe 5 minutes and you need to get out all of your concerns early. The doctor is under a lot of pressure from insurance companies and their own superiors to get you examined and treated quickly and move on to the next patient. This pressure leads to major abuses in the treatment of the poor and the treatment of the elderly.

She is concerned that there are many elderly people who are getting the label of "dementia" or "Alzheimer's" that do not have it. There are many different reasons for the symptoms of dementia and they need to be considered before giving someone the diagnosis. I agree with her concern. Elderly patients are often written off because, well, "They're old." Working in nursing homes, I saw time and again my residents not getting the level of medical care from their doctors that they deserve because the medical establishment would rather spend that money and energy on the young. Just because someone is old, doesn't mean that you can neglect them.

The same logic sometimes goes to the poor. In the book, Dr. Sweet gives numerous examples of poor people coming under her care who are in horrible shape. She discovers that what is ailing them is actually something very treatable that the other doctors just didn't notice. She argues that the other doctors would have discovered it if they had only sat down with the patient and spent some time with them instead of rushing from bed to bed.

She gave me a lot to think about in regards to the mentally ill. I am definitely not for re-opening the mental institutions. However, she makes a compelling case that there cannot be sweeping laws that apply to all of the handicapped. For example, they all have the right to refuse their meds. Now, for the patient that still has his reason, this law makes sense and it empowers them. But for the patient that no longer has their wits about them, in their refusal to take their meds they are not only hurting themselves but perhaps endangering those around them. Similarly, the idea that all mentally ill people have the right to live out in the community. It certainly sounds good, but Dr. Sweet argues that it is not always a practical idea for all patients. Certainly, the mental institutions cannot run like they used to, but, she argues, they shouldn't be completely closed, either, because some people cannot live out in the community. And, she points out repeatedly, that sometimes the closing of the mental institutions caused more problems than it solved because, while some of the patients got to move into the "real world," many if not most of them were moved into nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

I have always been for the closing down of the mental institutions. I have always been for giving the mentally ill all of these rights that she talks about in the book. But she gave very good arguments against my long-held beliefs. Maybe, just maybe, in exceptional cases, institutions should stay open, but they would have to undergo a "culture change" like what is currently happening in nursing homes all over the country. I think I would be comfortable with that. It would be better than having them in prison or homeless on the streets like what frequently happens to the severely mentally ill in our society.

The most interesting sub-plot in the whole book IMHO is the fights with Dr. Stein. I cannot remember Dr. Stein's official title, but suffice to say he was a big shot in the local, governmental medical hierarchy. He was in charge of the public hospitals. He was apparently used to always getting his way, so when Laguna Honda told him "no," they were on his hit list from there on. It was fascinating to me to read about all of the politics and infighting going on between, mainly, the doctors and administration. I would have to agree with Dr. Sweet, that healthcare decisions are best left to the doctors and patients and economics should have little, if anything, to do with it. But, that's not the way the healthcare system in the US works and that is a shame.

We do seem to sacrifice efficiency for care in this country. It's easier to go to the doctor and get a pill then wait to find out what is really wrong and go through whatever arduous process we need to in order to bring about true healing. Health is about much more than just pills. We have pills for everything and some of them are very good and life saving, but I think we all could probably afford to discontinue some. We want quick fixes and easy answers, but what we really need most of the time is to sit down, watch and listen.

Taken from here.

6 Christian Images for Newtown

I cannot imagine what the parents in Newtown are going through, especially those who have lost their children in this tragedy. As a mother, I know the pain in their heart is unspeakable and my heart breaks for them. Driving my car yesterday, I started to brainstorm, "what are some images from my tradition that can speak to the horror we saw last Friday?" I want to share 6 of them with you.

1. The first one is pretty obvious. Every speech we've heard since the event, particularly the speeches by President Obama, has used this quote. Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew to "Let the children come to me" and "That the Kingdom belongs to such as these." In New Testament times, children were to be seen, not heard. They were the lowest of the low, the very bottom of the totem pole. So it was quite revolutionary for Jesus to give them so much attention and dignity. Jesus loved children and although they died, we can trust that the victims of this massacre are being held in His arms right now.

2. The next one is fairly obvious given the holiday that is coming up. God, when He decided that He wanted to come to Earth and save us, didn't come as a king in glory and majesty. He came as a little child. As the hymn "Come, thou long-expected Jesus" says, "Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a king..." Again, another one "The coming of our God" says, "The everlasting Son comes down to Mary's womb; He bears our servitude to save us from our doom. O Zion, rise in haste to meet the meek and mild; Throw wide your arms; embrace the peace brought by this holy child." We Christians celebrate Christmas because we believe that God Himself, Creator and Sustainer of the world, came down to us in the form of a newborn baby. All children are God's children.

3. In the Gospel of Matthew, we read about how after Jesus' birth and after the Magi ran off, Herod ordered for all little boys under the age of two in Bethlehem to be killed in hopes of that he would kill Jesus and prevent Him from becoming king. Joseph had a dream about this warning him and so he took the Holy Family to Egypt and Jesus was spared. In many Christian traditions, these children are considered the first martyrs. After the events in Newtown, I saw a prayer to the Holy Innocents make its way around Facebook:

A Prayer To The Holy Innocents

Holy Innocents, you died before you were old enough to know what life means, pray for all children who die young that God may gather them into His loving arms.

Holy Innocents, you were killed because one man

was filled with hatred, pray for those who hate that God may touch their hearts and fill them with love.

Holy Innocents, you experienced a violent death, pray for all who are affected by violence that they may find peace and love.

Holy Innocents, your parents grieved for you with deep and lasting sorrow, pray for all parents who have lost young children that God may wrap a warm blanket of comfort around them.

Holy Innocents, those around you certainly felt helpless to prevent your deaths, pray for all who feel helpless in their circumstances that they may cling to God for courage and hope.

Holy Innocents, you who are now in Heaven, pray for all of us that one day we may join you there to bask in God's love forever.

Amen.

4. Now, follow me to the other end of Jesus' life on earth. We believe that Mary was there at the crucifixion. She witnessed the little child who she had held close in the manger grow up and die a horrible death on the cross. She watched her Son bleed and breathe His last. In sculptures, like the above by Michelangelo, and other similar statues and paintings, Mary is depicted holding her dead Son in her arms. Mary knows what the parents in Newtown are feeling more than I ever could. True, Jesus was not taken from this world in the springtime of His youth, He was an adult when He was executed, but a parent should never, ever have to bury their own child.

5. John 3:16 states, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life." Not only does Mary know what it is like to lose a child. God the Father knows too. Now, since He is God, He knew the reason why His Son had to die. He saw the bigger picture. But I'm sure that did not lend much condolence to Him as He watched Jesus suffer and die. A Man He knew to be innocent, a Man who He had watched grow up and had such an intimate relationship with, dies of asphyxiation, bleeding, naked on a cross. He knew why His Son had to die that day, but it was still His Son He watched dying.

6. And then we get to Jesus Himself. Jesus died. He not only died, but He died in the most horrific way that the Romans could think of at the time. He walked into the garden at Gethsemane knowing He was going to die. As part of the mystery of the Trinity, we also believe that Jesus was God. So as fully divine as well as fully man, Jesus walked every day of His life knowing how and when He was going to die. And when the time came, it was not easy for Him. He prayed that His fate could be changed. He cried out on the cross feeling as if God the Father had abandoned Him in His final moments. He courageously went to His death, but "courage" does not mean without fear. It means not letting the fear paralyze you into inaction. It reminds me of something else that has been making it's way around Facebook:

This is Victoria Soto. She died a hero today. She hid her first graders in the cabinets and closets after hearing the gunfire. When the shooter came to her classroom, she told him that her students were in the gym. He then gunned her down and moved on. She saved the lives of all of her students. Please pass this on if you see it. She deserves to be remembered for her bravery.

The story is not entirely true, but as the facts come in, we do know that she did die trying to protect "her kids" and five other staff members did, too. They showed the exact same courage Jesus showed on the cross.

This is the image I want to end with. There is the face of a young child (maybe angel) with a halo, a symbol of holiness. That face is right next to the face of the suffering Christ with this crown of thorns. I think this sums up the points I made with the other images very well.