A blessing of 'release'

[Tacenda]

24 minutes ago, JAHS said:

After my mission I was working as an orderly in an Ogden hospital (they liked to hire RMs for some reason). I found myself giving several blessings for patients. One day a grandmother came to me and said "my daughter just had a baby born with a rare skin condition that caused the skin to break open and bleed profusely at several places on her body and it was not expected to live." The grandmother asked us to bless the baby that she would die soon so she would not have to suffer so much.
My coworker and I went in to the newborn ICU and prepared to bless the baby as the grandmother asked. The baby was crying in great pain and bleeding from several cuts and abrasions on her body.   As I began the blessing I got the impression that I should not do what the grandmother asked. So I blessed her that she would be healed, but also said if she is meant to die then to let it happen soon and sort of left it in God's hands. 
A few weeks later a nurse came up to me excited and told me that the baby we prayed over was sent somewhere for some special treatments and the skin was healing up and she is going to live. 

Sweet. ❤️

[pogi]

2 hours ago, Calm said:

I am very pro euthanasia (never, ever forced) in an ideal world, but seen so many things get taken too far I worry that maybe benefits will cost too much. We as a society neglect the medically vulnerable as it is, imo.  If we were pushing to do anything and everything before we considered this as an option, I would feel differently as imo we rarely actually leave our deaths up to God alone given our choices to care or not care for ourselves and others.  But I can see it instead leading to more neglect as society sees there is a ‘no suffering’ option that demands little from others and could be much cheaper (depending how many legal and medical hurdles are created around it to prevent misuse) and therefore starts painting it as a noble and loving act one can do for others.

Certainly there are costs and risks that would need to be weighed.  That is an interesting thought about it potentially leading to greater neglect.  I would suggest that it would not even be an option for the vast majority (under my vision of it), and may not necessarily be considered as neglectful as it would have to be outlined in the individuals advance directive under very specific conditions.  If palliative measures are effective, it wouldn't even be an option.  

Some people may not realize that it is not against the law for an individual or family to make the decision to stop all medications for a terminal patient.  One of those medicines is a diuretic which may prevent fluid from filling an individuals lungs, effectively drowning the individual to death if they don't take it.  I have seen this decision made by a family as the only legal option to speed up the dying process by a few weeks maybe.  It is tragic that a more compassionate and less terrible option isn't available for when death is inevitable and palliative options are not effective.  When that is the best option, we are doing something wrong. 

[The Nehor]

There is an obvious solution to this problem.

 

[bsjkki]

My uncle got a blessing of release over the weekend. He had dementia and was in poor health but not near death. My cousin was mad about it and didn’t think her brother should have told him death was imminent and he could move on. She did not think it was time. He died today. He just quit breathing and moved on peacefully. 

[Calm]

How is your cousin reacting?

[bsjkki]

20 minutes ago, Calm said:

How is your cousin reacting?

She is doing well. She was his main care giver and it had been pretty overwhelming. She is at peace. It was time.