[Vision2020] Superstition and suffering

[Ralph Nielsen]

       Ms Huskey wonders if we think that God's providence means not
 > treating disease.  Far from it.  We are to fight against the ravages
 > of hunger, war, pestilence, bigotry, etc with all our strength and
 > hearts and minds.  This is part of loving our neighbor and exercising
 > dominion which we are all called to do.  I gladly use all the tools
 > available to me to perform these tasks, as do all the physicians I
 > know.  What it doesn't mean is using those tools to fight those  
things
 > which are themselves good, such as using them to end life either at
 > its beginning or at its end.  I can certainly understand the fear of
 > suffering and death- I have certainly seen enough of both and hate
 > them.

     But I also understand that suffering and death provide some of
 > our best chances for heroism and selflessness, and that faced with
 > courage they can have immense human value.  This is a basic Christian
 > idea, probably common to most religions, that Good can and will come
 > out of Evil, and that in the end, Evil does not win.  Our  
statement is
 > our poor attempt to reflect some of those realities, as is our
 > practice of medicine.  As Christians, we understand these truths in
 > Christian terms and with Christian vocabulary.  I think the majority
 > of them can be grasped through the natural law common to all
 > humankind.  Finding value in enduring and fighting bravely the
 > despicable things that come into our lives does not mean we  
approve or
 > desire them.  I hope that is clear.

     If there are still doubts about
 > what we three doctors are about, please feel free to talk to our
 > patients and neighbors, and, if it is not too intimidating, talk to
 > us.  I attend St. Mary's Church and know most of the people  
there.  If
 > you still think we are a chilling, ie "wicked" influence in the
 > community, I would hope you would at least do us the courtesy of  
doing
 > so after obtaining  the best information available to you, especially
 > if you are going to do this in a public forum.
 >
 > John Brown, MD
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     The lengths to which adherents of superstition will go to  
promote unnecessary human suffering are hard to believe but  
unfortunately are all too true. The fancy jargon they employ to  
attempt to justify their pro-suffering attitudes are weird and  
wonderful. As we can see above, they immerse themselves in fancy  
claptrap like pretending there is some kind of battle between Good  
and Evil (both with capital letters). That "suffering and death  
provide some of our best chances for heroism and selflessness, and  
that faced with courage they can have immense human value"! The only  
"human value" that forcing unnecessary terminal suffering on dying  
humans is the feeling of power over helpless people by self- 
proclaimed agents of alleged deities. Calling this attitude "truth"  
and "natural law" is justifying cruelty with arrogance.

     It is of course perfectly natural for adherents of a tradition  
which for centuries tortured and burned alive helpless victims under  
the guise of "saving" their alleged souls--an "auto da fé" (act of  
faith), as they put it in Portuguese--should be opposed to euthanasia  
for their fellow human beings. Fortunately in modern times most  
people have come to accept that four-legged animals should not be  
forced to suffer unnecessary pain if they are dying anyway. It is  
nothing but deliberate cruelty for the same people to force  
terminally ill two-legged human animals to suffer inhuman pain and  
loss of dignity merely on account of someone else's theology. I could  
be quite happy with legalized euthanasia for those who want it and no  
euthanasia for those who imagine that their suffering is "heroic and  
selfless" and has "immense human value."

     Sadism and masochism are not virtues in my vocabulary.

Ralph Nielsen