Can we teach our brethren what 'death with dignity' really means?

[Padraig18]

As a resident of Chicago, I was privileged to have met the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who died in 1996; Cardinal Bernardin was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in 1995, and chose to spend his remaining time on earth doing what he did best--- ministering to his flock. He received palliative treatments of various sorts to ease his pain and increase the quality of his life, but did not seek to extend his life at the cost of his innate human dignity.

I had the privilege of hearing him speak about his illness, and recall the words he said to us: "Many people have asked me why I’m at peace, or how I can be at peace, and first of all, you have to put yourself totally in the hands of the Lord. Secondly, you have to begin seeing death not so much as an enemy but as a friend. And thirdly, you have to begin letting go. And if you can do those three things, then you experience peace".

This, combined with the Holy Father's last illness and death, have served to show me that 'death with dignity' is not merely and empty phrase, but a truly wonderful example of how one should approach one's life, including the end: we must look past the fantastic machines and advanced treatments, and fully embrace our own humanity. To be born is to begin a journey that has but one ending, and the foreknowledge of that destination should serve to guide us in the conduct of our lives as fully human creatures, embracing both its joys and its sorrows.

In closing, let me restate my original question: Can we teach our brethren what 'death with dignity' really means? I believe we can and should, and that we can use as examples the deaths of various prominent Catholics, like the Holy Father and Cardinal Bernadin.

:)

[AngryOldDem]

1. Thanks for posting this

Cardinal Bernardin has been in my thoughts a lot over the past week, as another example of someone teaching us both how to live and die. It is hard to live by the words, "Thy will be done." I know it is for me. But both the Cardinal and the Pope showed how liberating that philosophy can be.

Remember Fr. Velo's homily at the Cardinal's funeral Mass? Every paragraph, it seemed, ended with "Didn't he show us? Didn't he show us the way?" Both the Cardinal and John Paul did, and we are all the richer for it.

[DemBones DemBones]

2. Amen! This was one of the great lessons of John Paul's papacy.

He accepted a couple of measures to help him remain alive a little longer (a tracheotomy on Feb.24, a feeding tube at some point) but no extraordinary measures. Personally, I think that he agreed to those measures only in hopes of lasting until Easter -- and then until Divine Mercy Sunday! Many people manage to hold out until a special holiday or event and then die.

Also like many people at the end of life, when he grew very sick again, he chose to stay in his own apartments to die. That's not possible for everyone but the feelings of a dying person are important to consider.

I heard that he had drawn up rules to be applied at the time of his death and the death of future popes (thought of course another pope could revise them.} The rules forbid photos being taken of the pope on his deathbed and also forbid the release of his last words, if he had any -- though we have been told things he said or wrote during the last days and I also read that he was reported to have said "Amen" just before he died. I thought that was a major death with dignity measure -- I don't believe the public has a right to know everything about a person in public life, or to see photos os them sick or in pain.

[Sapphire Blue]

3. Dying and dignity

From Sojourners...

Dying and dignity
by David Batstone

An excerpt...


Lo and behold, I have a story to share of heroism that takes place in the health care world. A nursing friend of mine, Mary Ann, works in a Catholic hospital in San Francisco. She was on her regular evening shift last month when the police brought into the emergency room a John Doe whom they had found lying inert on a city street. This homeless man was barely conscious, and his body had entered into the final stages of toxicity and organ shut-down that precede death.

<snip>

Mary Ann soon realized that there would be no extraordinary medical intervention to rescue John Doe's life. Her task that evening, as she understood her nursing vocation, was to accompany her patient on his journey toward death. Mary Ann continued to make her rounds with all her patients early in the evening, and made regular stops at the bed of John Doe. She noted that the man whose name she would never come to know was aware of her presence, and responded to her words of comfort.

<snip>

Mary Ann stayed by his bedside the rest of the evening. The man could not speak to her, but he applied pressure to Mary Ann's hand in response to her prayers, stories, and consolations. He remained alert until the last breath escaped from his lungs. Death came to take him at daybreak. Mary Ann uttered one final prayer of gratitude to God for walking this gentle soul home.

<snip>

Second, as John Doe lay in his hospital bed dying, saved from a totally anonymous passing by a giving spirit, the nation was transfixed with Terry Schiavo. Americans, it seems, work out their social values through pop culture - race with O.J., gender with the Bobbits, and so on - so perhaps the 24/7 media coverage of every detail of the Schiavo family is not surprising. But it strikes me that Mary Ann, on watch at the bedside of John Doe, is the symbol for an expression of "the absolute dignity of human life" that I will carry with me.

http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=sojomail.display&issue=050413#3

[DemBones DemBones]

4. I read that article several days ago and

applauded Mary Ann's actions, and those of her fellow nurses who took over her other patients so she could care for the dying homeless man.

But I still don't understand his last paragraph:

"Second, as John Doe lay in his hospital bed dying, saved from a totally anonymous passing by a giving spirit, the nation was transfixed with Terry Schiavo. Americans, it seems, work out their social values through pop culture - race with O.J., gender with the Bobbits, and so on - so perhaps the 24/7 media coverage of every detail of the Schiavo family is not surprising. But it strikes me that Mary Ann, on watch at the bedside of John Doe, is the symbol for an expression of "the absolute dignity of human life" that I will carry with me."


The last sentence is fine; Mary Ann's care for John Doe was certainly a wonderful recognition of "the absolute dignity of human life." But I don't think Americans worked out their social values on race with O.J. or on gender with the Bobbits, or on death with Terri Schiavo. (Nor have they worked out their social values on the homeless -- Mary Ann is an exceptional person.) The first two assertions are bizarre, IMO, and I'm not sure anything was worked out with Terri Schiavo except that an appalling number of Americans support killing a severely disabled person who is unable to communicate her wishes.

Too many people saw no dignity in Terri Schiavo's life and were willing to dismiss it as a worthless life and to see her killed. Many of those people likely also see little or no value in the life of a fully conscious person with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, etc. When we don't accept the imperfect human as fully human, we're on a dangerous road to losing our own humanity.

I can't feel too warm and fuzzy about Mary Ann's care for John Doe, a man whose organ systems were failing when he was brought to the hospital, when I know that, under court orders, nurses and doctors in that Florida hospice deliberately deprived Terri Schiavo of hydration and nutrition until her organ systems -- which had been perfectly healthy -- failed and she died.