opinions please

[birds]

Is stopping dialysis considered suicide?

Many religions teach that individuals have the right to stop treatment, including dialysis, if they feel it is not helping and is burdensome. You may wish to speak with your religious adviser if you have concerns about this.

[CrystalSong]

Hi,
I was inspire to respond to this post.
Spirit told me "Look to Nature for examples"
It took me a while to sort through that.
Squirrels helped. LOL

The squirrel in nature who develops a toxic kidney will die from toxicity in a short period of time, this is his natural course, the natural course of nature. He will not go to hell, be judged, or have committed a sin for dying naturally when his time came. Death is not to be feared, it is natural and inevitable.

Humans have invented ways to prolong life beyond its natural state.
So when we humans having the opportunity to extend our life, beyond it's state induced by nature, choose to have dialysis and then choose to stop it it is not suicide (unless the stopping of it is done specifically to die from some lack of hope or fear and not done from a place of peace and acceptance).

Choosing to live naturally without artificial means is not suicide. Nor is changing one's mind after having chosen artificial means for a while.

Many of us would already be dead had not modern medicine intervened via antibiotics. But there is no moral issues in either receiving them or choosing to not take them. It isn't up for church elders or the government to dictate or decide for us these choices concerning our bodies. Each must decided for themselves, preferably with the advice of Spirit.

I administer Peritoneal Dialysis to my Wife 4 times daily. She has end stage Kidney disease as a result of a NSTEMI Heart attack some 4 years ago.

Her choice then ...Let Nature do what it will, or alternatively Live on with interventions... She decided that Life should continue for a while .

Dialysis is indeed Burdensome and doubtlessly Palliative in its nature ...unless one is considered viable for transplantation.... I am actively involved in this sort of thing on a daily basis....So the balance is struck and striven for between quality and quantity of life.

Life , in the absence of further evidence is a gift ..We are given that Life as individuals...Hence "Habeas Corpus" We have (All be it Temporary) ownership of this body...

When the quality of life becomes so impaired despite extending ones life in misery a point is arrived at.

Stopping Dialysis while you can still Love and experience Love, While you can still Laugh...and be Laughed with...While you can still go outside (even with help , in a wheelchair) and smell the blooms ?

My Wife has had pretty much all that Diabetes can throw at her..Impaired Vision (She is practically blind) Heart Attack, Leading to Conjestive Heart Failure and now Heart Disease. End stage Renal Failure through Nephropathy..GFR hovering around 11 , Consistent Anemia despite Epoetin and Iron given regularly, Fluid Oedema in her Tissues despite hammering her with strong dialysate....

But She has no current desire to give up....So we carry on.

[SpiritCarrier]

I think that is the point made, quite eloquently, by Neville; if there is still a quality of life then there should be life. When living becomes just days filled with pain and misery then it is not living with any quality of life at all. Personally it is my belief that each person has to make that decision for themselves, if they are able to and have sound mind.

I had a brother who died at age 38 from a brain aneurism which was a side effect of years of dialysis. His son died at age 38 because he chose to stop his dialysis, he felt he had no quality of life remaining. It was his decision. I am sorry that he died so young. To be so young and so sick is so hard and only he could know how his body felt.

This is a hard subject for me today because it is the exact day of my big brothers death, 23 years ago. He lived his entire life with polycystic kidney disease. They have come a long way, since his death, with dialysis and transplants.

Originally Posted by SpiritCarrier

This is a hard subject for me today because it is the exact day of my big brothers death, 23 years ago. He lived his entire life with polycystic kidney disease. They have come a long way, since his death, with dialysis and transplants.

My thoughts and prayers are with you in this time of remembrance

[SpiritCarrier]

Originally Posted by Neville

My thoughts and prayers are with you in this time of remembrance

Thank you, I appreciate that.

[Native spirit]

I too would second what Neville said my thoughts are with you also.as for Dialysis my mother had to have it as did my aunt.my mother had a transplant witch worked well for her for a number of years,my aunt was to far into kidney failure for it to work,despite dialysis she passed away.but she did say that if she was able to have a transplant she would not have taken it.she had suffered to much her wish was to pass over,


Namaste