Thoughts

MY THOUGHTS ON LIFE AND DEATH
With the debate over the fate of Terri Schiavo in the news for the past week, I've been thinking a lot about life and death. I think there is no right or wrong answer, even for evangelical Christians, for such a complicated matter. But here are my two cents:
I believe abortion is wrong unless it affects the health of the mother or child. To me, that's killing.
I believe great things can happen as a result of stem-cell research. But it must be firmly regulated to only used existing embryos that were fostered but never used for such things like in-vitro fertilization. No new embryos should be created just for the research, even if that severely limits the number of stem-cells that can be used. Why create a live just to do research to potentially save a life?
And finally, for end-of-life cases, I agree in erring on the side of life in general. However, after working in health care for nearly 10 years now, there is also a line that must be drawn. If somebody has little chance of survival or is brain-damaged beyond repair or cannot breathe without the assistance of a ventilator, what kind of life is that? But, if circumstances are different, such as in the case of Terri Schiavo, where she may be brain-damaged, but sleeps in regular cycles and is able to breath on her own, the line is more difficult to draw.
Schiavo's husband just seems fishy to me, although I also believe that her parents are mistaken and she will not get any better with therapy because she has been in this state for too long. But it seems like pulling her feeding tube when she can still sleep at night and breathe on her own is murder. But this is just one man's opinion.