Speaking of crap you can find in newspapers nationwide...

...Herr Doktor Peter Teufel advocates killing the old, feeble, useless, ill, unwanted, you (Not today, of course. Later, when you can't fight back. Right now, you'd kick Herr Doktor Teufel's ass if he tried to kill you. But you should remember one thing, kiddies. You'll be old too someday.)


When faith and medicine meet

Q: I am a nun. About two months ago you replied to a letter about a 92-year-old man who was in good general health and broke a hip, then refused food, water, medicine and therapy for two weeks. I was unable to respond to that letter because I didn't have your address at that time. I have a problem with your advice — specifically, "If ... your uncle still has a death wish, respect it. At 92, his decisions should be honored." Basically, you are saying that if he wants to commit suicide then let him do it. Intentionally causing one's own death is as wrong as murder, and God gave us the commandment "Thou shalt not kill." Suicide is NOT a dignified death: It is a rejection of God's sovereignty and loving plan for the individual. God alone gives life; God alone ends that life.

A person who is in good general health is capable of eating and drinking without a feeding tube, but even if a feeding tube is necessary, this is still considered an ordinary means for sustaining life. A 92-year-old in good general health is NOT in a dying condition, where death is immanent. Therefore, food and water are morally required for him; otherwise, he chooses to reject God and commits a grave violation of the law of God.

We have a culture-of-death mentality in the world today that needs to be changed into a culture of life. The late Pope John Paul II wrote in his letter of 1984 On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, "Each man, in his suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ." The 92-year-old man (as well as many in the world today) needs to be instructed on the value of carrying one's cross with Jesus. Jesus said, "If you do not take up your cross daily and follow me, you cannot be My disciple." Acceptance of old age with its limitations is a powerful means of union with Jesus Christ. What a beautiful example we saw in the life of Pope John Paul II, who died peacefully a natural death, after living for years with physical decline. He did what St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, "present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." In 1999 the pope wrote a letter to the elderly. He said, "when God permits us to suffer because of illness, loneliness or other reasons associated with old age, He always gives us the grace and strength to unite ourselves with greater love to the sacrifice of His son and to share ever more fully in His plan of salvation."

I beg you to share with your readers a culture of life. Do not suggest to them an immoral choice that would have serious consequences for all eternity. One cannot honor the decision of a person who wants to be allowed to kill himself; one may never cooperate in evil.

Lord, bless and protect this brave Bride of Christ!

Now watch the evil Doktor Teufel blithely run roughshod over the Hippocratic Oath:

A: I am publishing your letter in its entirety because it represents a strikingly opposing belief to my own.

How we handle end-of-life decisions is a private matter for which each of us must take responsibility. The only reason I am readdressing this issue is that it has medical, social, political, personal and legal considerations.

How we live, perform and contribute to society is the culmination of years of experience. We don't need organized religion to demand (inappropriately) of us what we wish for at the end of life.

But, of course, we are talking about faith here — solid convictions that are not built on facts.

The fact is you are advocating the murder of innocent people you black- hearted son of a bitch.

When my elderly patients tell me that their lives are over, they've done on this earth what they were meant to do, and they don't want to experience physical as well as psychological and spiritual suffering, I respect that. Clearly, I won't engage in any behavior that could be misinterpreted or considered criminal, but I am certainly willing to accept their wishes and will engage in any lawful activity to support their decisions. So I am sorry to reject your viewpoint, but I stand solid, and so, I suspect, do many others.

Ah...I smell democracy! Since lots of people want to die and lots of others want to kill them, murder is a good thing. Doktor Mengele, benennen ihr büro.

Because issues of dying, suicide and other very personal matters are at the forefront of our concerns, I strongly urge my readers to purchase the astonishingly pertinent book "The End of Faith" (W.W. Norton, 2005) by Sam Harris.

I can only imagine the horrors present in that tome.

Let me know your reactions, readers, once you have completed your homework assignment.

May God have mercy on all souls.