Brain Fertilizer

In Courage and Courageous Choices, I discussed an interesting book whose main purpose is to teach parents how to raise kids to keep themselves safe.

A big part of the book is teaching children to make courageous choices. The rationalization is that people who do courageous things are choosing to overcome fear and help someone else out. We don't help when we feel panic and fear for ourselves. Turning the situation into a child protecting the parents by keeping themselves safe allows the child to not be as afraid for themselves, and theoretically not paralyzed by that fear. I didn't hammer that aspect much, as there was a little too much to consider to cover everything in one post. I'm sure I'll hit this subject again.

I touched upon the courage involved in overcoming adversity, and living with pain, disfigurement, and discomfort. The reason I did discuss that is due to an off-line discussion I was having with a friend. The friend made some good points in defense of Oregon's Assisted Suicide Law, but in the end, I don't think the government, the medical profession, or society should take even the first step toward legitimizing suicide. Suicide is an unfortunate choice that someone should be able to choose, I guess...but it should be discouraged. As a society, we should be encouraging and teaching courage in the face of the worst pain and disappointment and despair. You only lose when you stop trying.

I was perhaps more emphatic in that view than normal, having just read this book (linked in the previous post) on teaching children to be courageous. It just seems to me that if we attempt to teach our children to be courageous (and we should, and I am), that it is hypocritical to encourage cowardice in other situations. No matter how hopeless a health situation might seem, medical miracles do occur. I've seen so many people given 6 weeks to live that last 6 months or more...euthanasia for the point of avoiding pain would have deprived them and their families of months of living together. Maybe at some point, the willful endurance of pain leads to some greater understanding of life? But if you assist in a suicide, then you permanently end any such chance, don't you?

Imagine my surprise to see Zombyboy and some of his commenters expressing pretty much the same thing.

And something else just occurred to me:
Depression is one of the stages of death, correct? But those stages end with "acceptance". Which stage would someone most likely beg for euthanasia? Right: Depression. So euthenasia proponents would prefer to deny people their chance at acceptance of their death. That strikes me as cruel, albeit on an emotional level rather than physical.

Simply put: The main purpose of life is not to avoid pain. That being the case, there is no reason to adopt that attitude at the last second, at the point death is near.