"A man who was left paralysed and seemingly unable to communicate following a traffic accident was saved from having his life support machine turned off when he managed to blink three times to tell doctors that he did not want to die.Rudd, a 43 year old father of three, was paralyzed after being thrown from his motorcycle. His family was convinced that he would not have wanted to live in this condition, however, thanks to the attentive care of a doctor, Rudd was able to communicate his desire to live by blinking.
Richard Rudd's family had been agonising about turning off life support, his father said, after his son had said he would not want to live in a paralysed state.
But his son's remarkable response raises questions about when life should end and about how and when a family can decide if their loved one has suffered enough."
The BBC ran a documentary on this subject:
According to the BBC website, Richard is now able to make facial expressions and his long-term memory is intact. He has been moved to a different unit nearer his home in Worcester and, after seeing slow but steady improvements, Richard Rudd Senior has changed his view.
"We all sit round and talk in the pub or at work and say 'if this happened to me, turn the machine off'. It's all hypothetical and you don't know until it happens to yourself. As a family and friends, if that person can't decide for themselves, sometimes you feel that you can decide for them. Because, in theory, you think you can never live in that situation, you sometimes put that judgement onto somebody else. At the end of the day, you probably have no right to do that. But now Richard's in the situation where that's actually happened. It's real life - it's not pretend. He is in that situation. The will to live takes over."
1 comment:
God spoke to the world on this subject a few years ago.Two lives were coming to an end around the same time.One was Pope John Paul 2 and the other was Terry Schiavo.God held both up for all the world to see.Pope John Paul was dying of natural causes in his old age.He was suffering but was dying with dignity.He placed his soul in the hands of His Creator and trusted.Terry Schiavo was a young woman who was living in a semi comatose state.Her husband no longer wanted to live up to his promise of supporting her in sickness and in health,for better or for worse.He decided that he would play the role of God and asked the worldly authority of the state of Florida to starve her to death.The state agreed sseing no value in her life because she could not function in a productive manner.the world sees no redeeming value in suffering and is hard at work convincing society of this.Those who agree have taken their eyes off the cross.Christ on the Cross shows us the value of suffering.If he suffered for us..who are we to go against His will and decide for ourselves how and when to die.By doing this,by taking the easy way out,we are putting down our crosses and denying our Lord at the expense of our souls.The world attacked the Holy Father in his last years calling for him to step down.Questioning his effectiveness in governing the Church.But God showed how valuable his life and all life is from beginning to end.He used our Holy Father right up until his last breath and showed the world that in dying and suffering there is dignity.God showed clearly the line drawn..His way and the world(satans)way.Remember Christ owned absolutely no possessions of His own when He walked the earth.All He truly owned that was completely His is His suffering.We are all called to carry our crosses and He shares His only gift of suffering with each and every one of us in some way shape or form.It is up to us to accept or deny this gift.It is used for the redemption of souls.As Christians it is imperative that we keep our eyes focused on Christ on the Cross...if we begin to look elsewhere we shall fall.
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