Euthenasia, Selfishness and Greed.

Ooh, what a difficult topic! this is suddenly becoming hotly contested thanks to patricia Hewitt saying that the laws should be changed for the UK - is it right to assist someone to die?

Currently, the decision at the Dignitas Clinic in Zurich, Switzerland, is that they will help someone to die, provided that there is no profit to be gained by their death, and that the patient is Mentally Competent.

I have suffered from depression, and I know what it is like to consider suicide as an option out of feeling so pointless, useless, and being in so much emotional pain. And as a first off, I can quite categorically state that I was NOT in a mentally competent state of mind! I was not thinking clearly, rationally, and considering everything else - to me, I felt like the world was collapsing - that I had no world, and most of all, that if I were to dissappear, there would be no-one to miss me.

My mother once said that suicide is the most selfish thing you can do. And I think she was right, and I think that this debate, that it even exists, shows just how self-centred our world has become! Just look at ourselves! We are debating whether or not someone has the right to take their own life, or ask someone to do it for them if they are physically capable of doing so. We have such a materialistic society - we are judged on what we have and don't have - we have to get the latest clothes (most of which, you will probably find, were made in some sweatshop in india, which is another example of our selfishness), because otherwise we don't look good. We have to have as much money as possible, the latest gadgets, the latest this, that and the other, all for our own pleasure - we delight in pleasure in the western world, but we do it to the exploitation of others. Our own banking system used to be flawed, because our greediness got the better of us, so we borrowed money we could never pay back, and banks were happy to lend it to us, because what did they care, this was only someone else's money that they were lending to us!

And now, back to Euthenasia, we are so hungry, so greedy, for anything to please us, that we are even debating whether or not we can take our own lives, when we can't be bothered to try living anymore, because we think that the quality of life isn't good enough.

And even more incredible is the number of people I saw discussing this on the BBC comment thread, who claimed that it is "my body, my life"

Er, wrong. As a Christian, I believe that our lives belong to God - only God has the right to choose who lives and who dies, because he is the giver and taker of life - and he has a purpose for each of us in his kingdom - whether young, old, crippled, or living in a "lower quality of life"

And even if you are not a Christian, why do you believe that your life belongs to you anyway? who gave you life? This is a gift from nature, at least, that you are even conscious and thinking. And when you kill the body, you kill the mind - so why would you want to end a "lower quality of life" when you still have your mind anyway! The Human brain is the most fantastic thing in your life! With it, man has been able to build the most fantastic machines, developed so much, and created so much - all of which would have been impossible without the mind! And anyone who does not have the right state of mind, cannot even be killed by the dignitas clinic - so either you are mentally unfit, at which point you cannot have euthensia anyway, or you have a fully functional human mind, the most powerful tool in the universe.

Euthenasia is a crime and should stay as one - and to end on a quote from House: "You can live with dignity, but you can't die with it" - Death is possibly the most humbling experience - you become nothing, from the human being that you thought you were - you lose everything at death, so what is all this selfishness worth for anyway?

What!?!

So, the terminally ill Jade Goody is splashing over all of our news stories. Funny how there are other women who die of cervical cancer each year, yet still do not get the same coverage...

but the one thing that really made me want to write something was overhearing what Max Clifford, Ms Goody's publicist, had to say about her recent desire for her and her children to be baptised.

Over the past weeks Jade appears to have turned to God for help - perfectly understandable, and I of course have no problem with someone coming to God, especially in their time of need when they truly need to know his love and grace the most. But this was the quote: "I want to be christened, I want the boys to be christened, hopefully they will get to know Jesus... [not bad so far... just the small error of using the word "Christened" rather than the word "baptised"]... so that we can keep in touch when I've gone somewhere else"

Excuse me? Do you mind not making a mockery of my faith please? Has not one, responsible chaplain, told her that this is not how it works? There is not one single verse in the bible that says that the dead can speak to their children - oddly enough, the only "ghost" in the bible ever mentioned is the Holy Spirit - but I think that the sedation has gone a little to her head. This is not how it works, I am afraid. And I would rather statements like this do not make the news headlines, supposedly proclaiming what one deluded woman thinks christianity has to offer - the ability to converse with the dead.

Of course, Ms Goody and her publicist would certaily be forgiven if she was referring to when her children have grown up and died also, then they will see her in heaven - provided she has truly accepted Christ's sacrifice for her, as have they. I pray that they will all see each other in heaven one day - and that they too may rejoice in the glory of Christ, the saviour of the world...