End of Life Issues

The wife and I were listening to Focus on the Family last night during kitchen duties and they were discussing the new health care plan.  One of the problems they had with it is the idea that taxpayers may be paying for physician assisted suicide.  The conversation that followed was really a good one and was one of those instances where I wish I had a Zoom H2 to record wherever, but alas I don’t.  They raised the case of a person in Washington state who had a form of cancer that had minimal chance of being treated successfully (less than five percent).  The state wouldn’t pay for their health care, but would pay for physician assisted suicide.

For the sake of argument let us assume that this was our new federal health care policy.  If you have a terminal illness with less than a five percent chance of being cured, should the government pay for it?  Secondarily, should tax payer dollars go to paying for physician assisted suicide?

Here’s my $.02.  I don’t think the government should pay for just any treatment.  It is wise to take into account the efficacy of any procedure and just how experimental/risky it may be.  Insurance companies do that now and I don’t have a problem with it.   A five percent chance of success seems a reasonable benchmark.  I’m not sure how they arrive at those numbers, but again this is a hypothetical (though I would like to know).  Any lower than that and you would have to use private health care or pay for it out of pocket.

On the payment for physician assisted suicide I think that if a person is sound in mind and facing a terminal illness they should be allowed to end their own life.  I can’t imagine that it would be an easy decision, but if the choices are staying in some sort of drugged up fugue state, being in a tremendous amount of pain, or ending it all I think that the latter choice is certainly reasonable.  It can even be ethical.  “Should the government pay for it?” is the next question.

I don’t see why not.  It’s another form of medical care albeit a final one.  If you object on the basis of being morally opposed to it and don’t want your tax dollars to go towards it then I would ask you why I should be forced to pay for the war efforts we are currently undertaking?  Certainly there is a place for you as a citizen to object to perceived misspending of government money, but aren’t you saying to this person “My morality trumps your quality of life.”?  That sort of thinking happens all the time I suppose, but this is at least one instance where I can’t agree with the reasoning.

The person making the decision, and in my opinion it should always be in the hands of the individual or the person holding the power of attorney,  is the only one in my mind that could be held morally responsible.  It is their life.  With abortion or the death penalty or any similar end of life issue another individual is being acted upon without their consent (whether they can give consent or not is another topic).  I can see the question there.  That isn’t the case here.

Are you opposed to this should it come to pass?  Why or why not?  And as always don’t count your words.  Let the comments flow.

  • sidfaiwu

    Dammit, if you want an interesting discussion, write something I can disagree with! Well said Scott. I hope you hear from those with different opinions soon.

  • spiritualtramp

    Hmmm. Philosophy is the art of letting the navel gaze in to you…. Go.

  • http://thesnurp.blogspot.com/ Snurp

    He who fights with navels should look to it that he himself does not become a navel. And when you gaze long into a navel the navel also gazes into you.

  • sidfaiwu

    Oh, that's funny, Snurp.

  • http://www.drewbeatty.com drewbeatty

    Hey Scott,
    Very interesting, thought provoking discussion here. I agree with many of your points, so don't look to me to provide fodder for discussion. The largest problem I can see would be getting accurate statistics regarding the chance of being cured. 5% verses 6% is a pretty close statistic, all things considered.

    I imagine one argument for people who have a problem with this would be to point out that the government (although it might be at the state level) pays for executions. Could be an interesting fire starter for the discussion.

    Great Post!

  • spiritualtramp

    Hey Drew. Thanks for your kind words.

    That is certainly one issue, the arbitrariness of statistics, but the bar would need to be set somewhere I would think.

    As far as execution goes, that's the interesting thing about many on the right. Not to set up a straw man, but a lot of folks I know on that side are okay with the death penalty but not this or abortion. They cite the innocence of the baby or the sick, but forget that in God's eyes none are innocent. And as I said above at least in the case of terminal illness the person who's dying has a say in the matter.

    Don't be a stranger!

  • spiritualtramp

    High-larious. ;)

  • http://www.spiritualtramp.com/blog/?p=839 Christian Citizenship » Spiritual Tramp

    [...] commented via Facebook on my “End of Life” post”: I consider government something to be tolerated as a necesarry evil and whatever they want to do [...]

  • http://www.jesusgeek.info/ John

    I think this whole issues stems (at least for Christians) from the idea that suicide is murder. There are a couple of ways to look at this:

    1.) It is murder but it can be forgiven (just like any other sin)
    2.) It is worse than murder and unforgivable (I don't think it's supported by scripture)
    3.) It's not a sin at all (I don't think that's the case)

    So if it's a sin, can you ask for forgiveness while you're committing the act AND can you be forgiven of it?

    Just throwing some thoughts on the virtual wall to see if they'll stick. I haven't really formulated any opinions yet.

  • http://www.salguod.net salguod

    One thing to point out is that it is likely that the health insurance company that most Christians pay premiums to will pay for something they don't agree with for someone – birth control, abortions, etc. They'd say, well, I could change insurance companies, I can change governments. But most people can't change insurance companies without changing jobs and how many of those folks would really do the leg work to find the 'right' insurance company?

    I'd say that Government run health care is a further step down the wrong road, the road where someone else makes health care decisions for us. Now, for most, it's our employers (or the insurance company they've chosen), soon it'll be our government. Each of those entities have interests that may be contrary to our own.

  • spiritualtramp

    Murder, at least as I understand it to be defined legally, involves a sense of malice. There are times when it's Biblicaly acceptable to take a life, so the act of taking a life itself isn't immoral. Ending your own life I suppose can be a malicious act if your intent is to hurt someone emotionally or even physically in the case of a suicide bomber. I don't think od'ing on morphine because you are in torment emotionally or physically is malicious. In that case maybe it is an instance of option 3?

    If it is a sin is it required to ask forgiveness of every sin we commit in order to receive forgiveness? I know that repentance is part of the process, but just saying “sorry” isn't enough.

  • spiritualtramp

    Great point in regards to us researching our own insurance companies.

    I don't want anyone to make health care decisions for me. I recognize that unless I'm fabulously wealthy though, that's going to happen. That's pretty sad.

  • spiritualtramp

    Murder, at least as I understand it to be defined legally, involves a sense of malice. There are times when it's Biblicaly acceptable to take a life, so the act of taking a life itself isn't immoral. Ending your own life I suppose can be a malicious act if your intent is to hurt someone emotionally or even physically in the case of a suicide bomber. I don't think od'ing on morphine because you are in torment emotionally or physically is malicious. In that case maybe it is an instance of option 3?

    If it is a sin is it required to ask forgiveness of every sin we commit in order to receive forgiveness? I know that repentance is part of the process, but just saying “sorry” isn't enough.

  • spiritualtramp

    Great point in regards to us researching our own insurance companies.

    I don't want anyone to make health care decisions for me. I recognize that unless I'm fabulously wealthy though, that's going to happen. That's pretty sad.

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