“Times, they are a-changing…”
There has been a dramatic political and moral shift across our nation of Canada in the past few years. While it is a shift that has been in the making since the sexual revolution of the 60’s, in many ways it has caught those of us who are ‘of an age’ off guard. (See July 18 Post for further info.)
We never thought or expected to see physician assisted death being touted in some cases as a ‘treatment option’ nor to find ourselves as one of the few/only developed nations who have approved nation wide legal consumption of marijuana. The implications of such legislative actions are going to be widespread and insidiously endemic. It makes the fictional work of Dr. James Dobson, & co-author, Kurt Bruner, all the more compelling.
Godlessness…
I am well into finishing reading their trilogy of books I introduced in the July 27, 2018 Blog posting. There are three titles in the series, Fatherless, Childless, and Godless.
In the Author’s Note at the beginning of the third book, Godless, Kurt Bruner identifies today’s beliefs that have shaped their fictional projection into the future and fueled their speculation of what the world of the 2040’s will be like. He adds, “…we confront the chilling implications of Dostoevsky’s claim that without God all things are possible.” The books depict this chilling ‘new world’ and the implications in, what continues to be, albeit currently a total fictionalization of reality, an all too likely scenario facing us in the not too distant future, especially if we do nothing NOW.
Getting back to this trilogy of books, the authors are examining our world two to three decades in the future through a fictional scenario that highlights the impact of the population pyramid flipping to where the elderly population numbers, the tail end of the baby boomers, far outstrips the number of able body younger people. The drop in fertility rates for decades, coupled with the lack of replacement population, has placed an inordinate, heavy burden on the existing workforce. It has negatively impacted economic growth, precipitating desperate measures on the part of governments to off-set those deleterious effects.
One of the answers, posited by the elected officials of the day, to enhance transferring their financial resources from the aging population to the upcoming generation facing economic stress, is to encourage ‘heroic’ volunteers to ‘transition.’ That means to accept euthanasia, or assisted suicide, rather than using up their financial resources on their care as elderly, aging, and possibly ill, individuals — otherwise termed, in popular parlance of the (projected) day, as ‘debits.’
All ‘debits’, i.e. anyone who is not actively contributing to the economy but is draining limited resources, are encouraged to do the heroic, loving, caring thing and opt for allowing themselves to be put to death, whether they are failing, aging individuals or disabled, anyone who is unable to contribute to the economy is encouraged to ‘transition’.
Interestingly, the philosophical and theological underpinnings for transitioning are built upon the ancient philosophy of Manicheanism, a recycling of the belief that the body is evil and the spirit it good. To be freed from the decaying body and released to a higher spiritual plane is preferable to the suffering of aging, illness or disabling disease. We are seeing traces of the emergence of this belief even in our day.
All three books in the trilogy, published between 2011 and 2014, reflect this sobering theme, which, as I titled the earlier Blog post, depict very real possibilities that I find ‘chilling.’
What does this mean for me?
While I have read innumerable Christian thrillers, murder mysteries, and suspenseful action themed books, which have reflected all kinds of unsavory scenarios, none of them have been able to ‘creep me out’ like these particular books have. I think it is because the other scenarios would not be ones that I, personally, would be likely to encounter. But, here, in this instance, given my age and any unfavorable projected health prognosis, I could, very realistically, as an aging member of the baby boomers, personally face what is being depicted in these novels.
That is especially true with the advent of MAiD being so readily available, across Canada, and, as I mentioned, it being offered to patients, or suggested to family or close friends, as one of the legal treatment options available under the current restricted circumstances, which are bound to change, to those with a terminal illness.
I think we all become very vulnerable to the pressures to end our lives, both to avoid our own suffering, and to refrain from putting our loved ones through the anguish of watching. And, it is not unthinkable, that it could also be for the sake of the economic reasons, to potentially save our loved ones from having to invest our own hard earned financial resources, or theirs, into our ongoing care as we age or are afflicted with debilitating or terminal illness.
The pressure to take action and end our lives is, as these books depict, beginning to be viewed as the compassionate and caring thing to do. We should not have to ‘suffer’ our way through to a demeaning dependence that robs us of our dignity and casts us upon the care of others, instead of being healthy and robust and savoring our independence. The language of promoting euthanasia and MAiD as caring and compassionate is deceptive. While it sounds good, it does not perceive or respect the inherent dignity of the individual created in the image of our loving God, nor seek to protect and promote and support living until we die. Instead, as a patient who was offered MAiD pointed out, he wanted support to live, not support to die.
Capital Punishment is seen, and lobbied against, because it is barbaric and sears the consciences and lives of those who provide it. How can we think that to sanitize the killing of another person, albeit one who requests it, is acceptable because we move it out of the penal facility into a sterile hospital setting and surround the person with a medical team who will help this go quickly and well? What makes it less barbaric than to take the life of a convicted, perhaps unrepentant, criminal?
Defies reason, as far as I can see. But, I digress.
The Future is Now…
It strikes me that we have already taken the long walk down the road to ending life in Canada for too long to turn around. But, how do we protect and preserve the dignity and safety of those who do not want to take this, currently, elective option to end their lives when there has been a terminal diagnosis? What must we do to preserve the caring and ‘do no harm’ of the Hippocratic Oath, sworn by our medical professionals, so that pressure is not there to end one’s life prematurely and caring to the natural end of life is available for those who believe it is the way to finish their days?
It begs the issue of the funding of better and more available palliative and hospice care across Canada. More on that another time.
Promoting a Culture of Death or Preserving a Culture of Life.
The battle against ‘life’ in our current Canadian society has heated up another notch. It has taken a giant step forward, from the frontal attack and assault on pre-born life, the taking of innocent life in the womb for any reason, at any time, to promoting voluntary death by the elderly, aging and unwell. We have consolidated and condoned the sacrificing of sacred life on the altar of convenience, comfort and ease.
Only if we resolve to put ourselves, and our conscience beliefs, on the line to contend against the proliferation of this Culture of Death, which was spoken of by St. John Paul II so succinctly some two decades ago, can we hope to see the Culture of Life prevail. It is incumbent on us to stand up and be counted as for life, not against it.
Ending Our Life Well 