Thread: Couple Married for 66 Years Chose to Die on the Same Day by Legal Suicide

On the last morning of their lives, Charlie and Francie Emerick held hands. The Portland, Ore., couple, married for 66 years and both terminally ill, died together in their bed April 20, 2017, after taking lethal doses of medication obtained under the state's Death with Dignity law.

Francie, 88, went first, within 15 minutes, a testament to the state of her badly weakened heart. Charlie, 87, a respected ear, nose and throat (ENT) physician, died an hour later, ending a long struggle that included prostate cancer and Parkinson's disease diagnosed in 2012...

"They had no regrets, no unfinished business," said Sher Safran, 62, one of the pair's three grown daughters. "It felt like their time, and it meant so much to know they were together."

In the two decades since Oregon became the first state to legalize medical aid-in-dying, nearly 1,300 people have died there after obtaining lethal prescriptions. The Emericks were among 143 people to do so in 2017, and they appear to be the only couple to take the drugs together at the same time, said officials from Compassion & Choices, a national group that tracks aid-in-dying, and End of Life Choices Oregon. They did so in the assisted living complex where they had lived for the last years of their lives, without informing the management...

http://time.com/5179977/assisted-suicide-couple-death/

The story had a link to the daughter's documentary...how sad in so many ways:

https://sharewisdom.tv/living-dying-...y-documentary/

Doesn't Bookie live in Oregon and said how liberal it is.
The only way to eternal peace is through Christ...Euthanasia another demonic deception

I certainly won't judge their eternal destiny although there is an absence of faith for healing it would seem. She made a statement that is VERY troubling...She said they had a faith that life was not to be worshiped but the quality of life is what counts....now THAT is deeply troubling....that is the reasoning for many abortions, the reasoning to justify euthanasia to begin with...and the root of so much actual evil...even Hitler viewed certain life as 'inferior' and that mindset is still prevalent regarding the handicapped or deformed or mentally challenged....

As she said some' faith' won't allow this belief....she is very right on that and these beliefs are so profoundly humanistic..

She also said the other side would be wonderful or she wouldn't know....so it's clear there was no concept of a third option, Hell...

Originally Posted by Cardinal TT

Doesn't Bookie live in Oregon and said how liberal it is.
The only way to eternal peace is through Christ...Euthanasia another demonic deception

Yep. We're one of the bluest states in the country.

that was an interesting piece.

It's an eloquent argument for being in control of your own death. It made it seem such a compassionate and kind dealing with it.

However.. there is nothing to suggest they had much interest in anything of God.

I will admit, I am conflicted about end of life situations like this. There is a measure of it seeming kindly to not have to experience some of the wretchedness that Parkinson's brings. It seems a gentle way to not have to deal with the infirmities that heart trouble/cancer brings.

So, I *get* that.

But, it also discounts that there in One True and Living God and it's His, or is should be His, determination that takes a human life. We are made in His image and destroying that is a usurpation of His place.

I know I cannot expect people who are not believers to understand, and, in truth, were I in that position I'd probably contemplate. Then, hopefully, I'd realize it's a line that should not be crossed and ask forgiveness for those thoughts.

I do know this will be persuasive in the argument that euthanasia is a good thing.

It does make me wonder, though, people who have no concept of what the afterlife will bring are like kids playing in the street with no care for the bus heading for them. For all the kindness and gentleness in bringing their death, if these folks did not have any kind of relationship with God, and there is no indication they did, they were in for a very rude awakening.

I remember hearing, some time ago, the only people who have any clue about hell are those who are saved from it.

and there are no "do overs".

It is a compassionate argument and for someone who is lost it makes perfect sense. But for the Christian, Jesus is LORD and that includes LORD over our living and our dying....so unless we can prove suicide it sometimes HIS divine directive and will, that must be the end of the matter for us...reasoning beyond that it to ponder self as lord IMHO