Title: “LIFE” THE RIGHT CHOICE
Category: Inspiration
I believe each person in the world is given a soul-----a little spark of God’s love-----even before they are conceived in their mothers womb. In most cases after death that precious soul returns to God where it originated and lives on forever. I believe that along with that indelible soul God has a plan for each life conceived. When we abort a baby or commit euthanasia on an older person we stop God’s perfect plan. The soul still returns to God. We can’t destroy the souls God creates-----but the life and the heavenly inspired plan which God had hoped for that life is destroyed.I dream of a society in America that ends abortions and never legalizes or supports euthanasia. I believe we are truly all “inter”dependent and must support each other a lot better in order to reach my dream of such a loving society. God is love according to Saint John and with enough of that love surely we can support every pregnancy with the right choice of life. Surely we can love every older person who contemplates a quick death with skillful pain control and a feeling that someone loves them right up to the moment of their natural death.
Let me share two stories of good life choices. The first is about a lonely Florida State College coed in 1951. She found herself pregnant after a brief romance and never told the father. Finally her father realized her predicament and suggested adoption. She was brought to New Orleans and spent 6 months with the Volunteers of America adoption agency. She delivered a healthy 7 ½ pound, blue eyed boy, and placed him for adoption. At age 2 months he was adopted by a wonderful small town Louisiana couple. They had two girls ages 5 and 4 but couldn’t have any more children. The boy grew up to be happy and successful and follow in his fathers footsteps in medicine. He even became a Pediatrician just like his father and was able to join him in practice as a partner. His dad is now older and retired but the son proudly carries on the tradition of loving medical service that his “ mentor dad” practiced for 50 years. The dad in this story is my dad and the birth mother is my birth mother. I thank God that she chose life. I believe that there are millions of loving couples who would also gladly adopt every baby we abort in America if given the chance. In a recent article in Parade Magazine the statics startled me. Of approximately 1000 pregnant teens 600 went on to have their babies and keep them; 300 had abortions, and zero chose adoption. I know we can do a better job of supporting adoption and encouraging it as a wise choice in many of these circumstances.
The second story is about a beautiful young lady with cystic fibrosis. Her chronic lung disease forced her to retire from her job as an elementary school teacher after only 8 years in the class room. At that point she became very depressed and discouraged. In order to keep her lungs working she required around the clock home treatments. She also required hospitalizations for approximately 10-14 days almost every 3 months. After 5 years of this routine she went into a coma. Her doctor was pressured to let her go-----so that she would never have pain again. Somehow he felt that she would pass from her coma into death if she was ready but perhaps she wasn’t. The doctor continued to treated her supportively with IV antibiotics, IV fluids, and oxygen. Amazingly after 5 days of a deep coma she awoke and said: What’s been going on? The morning she awoke happened to be Easter Sunday. Needless to say her family and her physician were thrilled to see her so alert and most definitely alive. She related she was indeed glad to be still alive because she had some very important unfinished business. Later that day she described a near death experience to her physician. She felt pulled down a tunnel of bright light and just about ready to let go. Suddenly she heard God say I need you to go back and do a few things. She willingly accepted and that is the exact moment she woke surrounded by her doctor and family that Easter morning. This patient lived on almost 2 more years and I have no doubt she did accomplish some very important unfinished business. The reason I know this is because she was my special patient and actually more like a little sister for 13 years that I had the privilege of taking care of her. She related many of these private personal missions that she felt she had accomplished to me prior to her death 2 years later. I was with her on that cold March day when she ended her long suffering with a beautiful peaceful smile on her face.
This second story tells of a courageous lady’s severe chronic illness and suffering and her natural death when she was ready to meet her maker. Her case is not dissimilar from many of the thousands of adults who consider euthanasia. I hope that you agree with me that it is best to die as this patient did when God is ready for you and that life in her case and in every case is the right choice not euthanasia.
I believe with enough of God’s sweet love and grace we can change America. We can end abortions and euthanasia. We can and must chose “life”-----the right choice.