Oct 7, 2009

Invite your friends to ur DEATH PARTY

YEAR

OCCASION

Knowing how much I love surprises, my grandchildren have planned one for me ... They take me to a store whose board looks like this :

YOUR DEATH NOW IN YOUR HANDS ..
EuThAnAsIa GaLlErY



Looking at question marks all over my face, my grandchildren comfort me and hand me a MENU CARD. I ask them what is this ? They reply, "Granny, here is the menu card with 600 different ways, choose any of them as your birthday gift". Still unclear about what this store is all about, I start reading the menu card whose first page sends shivers all through my body. It read as follows :


BREAKFAST TIME DEATH OPTIONS
Poison
Hang to death
(for lots more go to page 3.....)

LUNCH TIME DEATH OPTIONS
Accident
Cut the veins
(for lots more go to page 4.....)

DINNER TIME DEATH OPTIONS
Push down the hill
(for lots more go to page 5.....)

COMBOS
Kill yourself + Kill your spouse
(You get discount in the healthcare plan)

And they continue, "Granny, We are preparing you for death." The day you are in your death bed, we shall send you to heaven the way you want to. And my suggestion is that you look at the COMBOS option too, they are pretty good." Unable to come to terms with what was happening around, I was shaken by yet another sound..........The sound of the morning ALARM..... I got up in my bed and looked at my husband sleeping beside me. Then I heaved a sigh of relief realizing that it was just a dream. But this dream could very well turn into reality all thanks to the thoughtful leader of Amricaaa , Barack Obama.



Friends, if you are still thinking as to what am talking about, then you need to have a look at the health care plan that Barack Obama has put forth for the senior citizens. "The point is," Obama says, "there is a way to die in this plan for everyone." According to the 970-page bill, seniors would have access to more than 600 methods of execution, all of which would be covered by Medicare. The legislation would also allow aging Americans to keep their own primary care physicians if they prefer to be euthanized by their family doctor.

For those who are alien to the concept of EUTHANASIA, lemme tell you that it is an act of a physician or other third party ending a patient's life in response to severe pain and suffering. It is this act which we better know as MERCY KILLING . When it is done with the consent of the patient, it is called VOLUNTARY EUTHANASIA and the act done without consent is called INVOLUNTARY EUTHANASIA. This is commonly practiced in veterinary medicine when animals are "put down" or "put to sleep." In modern medicine, it could conceivably be applied to the act of taking a terminally ill, suffering patient's life who has lost all mental capacity to make his/her own decisions.

Ooooops... Too much of science terms to digest I guess. Let's not divulge much into it. We shall ponder upon the human aspect of this act which almost every human can do..And no wonder I can do too.

So do I agree with the idea of Obama ?? Remember one of the famous question of all time ....WHAT CAME FIRST - AN EGG or A CHICKEN ?? I can hear someone murmur, "Hey it is the chicken". Well friends, am proud that you have read your BIBLE (I was told Genesis 1:21 has the answer for it). The point is am yet to read it. Just as in this case, in which I don't have any particular answer, the same holds the question of MERCY KILLING. So lemme put forth my views on both sides of the coin, leaving you to be the judge of the debate.


To me the most wonderful thing about miracles is that it happens only sometimes. And such miracles happen with those who tread the path of HOPE. Now in old age, as far as I have seen in the case of my grandparents, HOPE has been their sole weapon when health has failed them. Now the passing of the bill would mean we would create a confusion in God's plans for our next birth. The passing of the bill would mean we will not have any more inspiring stories to hear about HOPE. This bill means we greedy beings can overpower the will of the Almighty. Does our conscience permit us to do it ??? Whaaaa.... What does the word CONSCIENCE have to do in today's world....This is today's SAD REALITY.

Spinning the coin, I see myself beside my cousin, Niti who today is a star in the sky. She was the most beautiful girl in the entire family. I bet had she been normal she would have beaten the likes of beauty queens of the world today. But gosh, she wasn't the lucky one. With the brain of a 5 year old and an age of 15, she was entering into the most important phase of a girl gaining maturity and she didn't know what was happening to her. I still remember an incident when a whole lot of red ants got into her dress and she was crying aloud with pain and none of us knew what was happening with her. When she vomited , she vomited in blue. She weighed about 45 kilos and yet wanted her mom to carry her to all places. I am talking about a time when I was 10 years old. I remember wondering why GOD who is supposed to be nice is causing so much harm to my sister. At that time, had I the knowledge about Mercy killing, it would have definitely prompted me to think about it.

All said and done, Nobody knows if the 970 pages of bill is gonna see the light of the day. what do YOU think about it ??? Should we think it as an act of relieving someone of his or her pains or should we think it to be act of disgrace towards Almighty. The ball is in your hands... While you do the thinking, lemme go and borrow a bible from my friend and assure me of the answer about the EGG Vs Chicken episode!

6 comments:

  1. very well put.. and the wry humor streaking through the post is all the more captivating. good work neha! u just found yourself a regular follower.

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  2. Very good and a hot topic to write on.....and very well written... The Mercy killing was there well before our independence when Mahatma Gandhi asked to kill the animal(i dont remeber which animal it was) which was suffereing from pain. Animals dont talk so involuntary EUTHANASIA is the only option, but for humans I think voluntary EUTHANASIA is the right option.

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  3. Hi friends,

    Thanx for ur comments....

    @Arvind ... I tried to bring in that personal touch that u found missing.Have i done it enuf ?

    @Arul .... People had and will continue to have diverse opinion about MERCY KILING.... lets c if this bill passes and hw people receive it....Already the opposition has started their share of criticizing him for this bill....We gotto wait n watch !

    Regards,
    Neha

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  4. God never gave any authority to human "to bring life and then destroy it"; human has the authority "only to give birth alone but NOT to destroy it". So i m against EUTHANASIA.God is teaching lessons from others pain as well. We have to learn. Nice post Neha.

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  5. I agree with u wilson....Bt wen we have r dear ones by our side suffering to the extreme, it wud make us rethink abt it.....
    Well, all have different ways of looking at things ......Lets wait n c......

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  6. Yes Neha, the personal anecdote was subtle yet very relevant to your topic. Just about perfect. And for the record, I support euthanasia in principle, although i will never be party to it because of professional considerations and the ethics i swore by. At least in the US, they already have provisions like DNR clauses and patients having the right to refuse any treatment even if the refusal might cause death. Thus 'passive euthanasia' is very much legal and in existence in the US, where the patient can tell the physician NOT to do something that will prevent death. What Obama suggests is legalizing the active component of it, where the patient can actively request the physician to DO something that will pull the plug. While patient refusal to life saving treatment is respected, requesting active killing goes in direct conflict with the doctrine of Non-maleficence which is a cornerstone of the medical profession, and hence may not find broad acceptance in the healthcare community. Hence the current dictum of 'let die if patient wants, but do not kill' is best left untouched.

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