<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Nov 2, 2008
YOUR LETTERS
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Dad suffered but still faced death with courage
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I recently buried my father, Reverend Henry Khoo Hin Yang (who was featured in the article, 'Chaplain who turned lives around dies', (Oct23) ), after his prolonged stay in the hospital, most of that time fighting for his life in the intensive care unit.
For the 55 days he was in hospital, he was either sedated or semi-comatose, and later, in considerable pain, but not once did he or we consider hastening his death.
For a man who taught those facing capital punishment to face death with courage, he would have had it no other way than to face his own with equal courage in the midst of his own suffering.
Dignity and the valuing of human life are what he exemplified in his living, and in his dying. There were rich lessons we learnt from the dignified and courageous way he faced his own death.
Even when we decided at one point to withhold further treatment in favour of palliative care - only to reverse that decision on the advice of two doctors whom we respect - in hindsight, it would have been a decision to regret if Dad had died as a consequence.
If euthanasia had been legalised, the context in which the doctors might have approached us might not have been far from advising an active hastening of my father's death (given his own inability to make the decision). It is a slippery slope.
The headline in last Sunday's blurb, 'Please let me die', is somewhat inaccurate. Those who are for euthanasia would ask, 'Please help me die', or more starkly - but no less accurate - 'Please kill me'. Euphemisms cannot be used to mask an honest discussion of what euthanasia is. As Dr Chin Jing Jih rightly noted in the article, 'Can you please kill me?', 'there must be a consistent definition of euthanasia'.
In this context, even the word we use for those in hospital, 'patients' - from the Latin word 'patiens' (meaning 'one who endures') - would suggest the dignity and courage of those who suffer.
Legalising euthanasia would necessitate a revision of how we refer to those treated in hospitals.
The word 'treated' is also instructive as to if and how we accord human dignity to those who suffer. Timothy Khoo
YOUR LETTERS
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Dad suffered but still faced death with courage
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I recently buried my father, Reverend Henry Khoo Hin Yang (who was featured in the article, 'Chaplain who turned lives around dies', (Oct23) ), after his prolonged stay in the hospital, most of that time fighting for his life in the intensive care unit.
For the 55 days he was in hospital, he was either sedated or semi-comatose, and later, in considerable pain, but not once did he or we consider hastening his death.
For a man who taught those facing capital punishment to face death with courage, he would have had it no other way than to face his own with equal courage in the midst of his own suffering.
Dignity and the valuing of human life are what he exemplified in his living, and in his dying. There were rich lessons we learnt from the dignified and courageous way he faced his own death.
Even when we decided at one point to withhold further treatment in favour of palliative care - only to reverse that decision on the advice of two doctors whom we respect - in hindsight, it would have been a decision to regret if Dad had died as a consequence.
If euthanasia had been legalised, the context in which the doctors might have approached us might not have been far from advising an active hastening of my father's death (given his own inability to make the decision). It is a slippery slope.
The headline in last Sunday's blurb, 'Please let me die', is somewhat inaccurate. Those who are for euthanasia would ask, 'Please help me die', or more starkly - but no less accurate - 'Please kill me'. Euphemisms cannot be used to mask an honest discussion of what euthanasia is. As Dr Chin Jing Jih rightly noted in the article, 'Can you please kill me?', 'there must be a consistent definition of euthanasia'.
In this context, even the word we use for those in hospital, 'patients' - from the Latin word 'patiens' (meaning 'one who endures') - would suggest the dignity and courage of those who suffer.
Legalising euthanasia would necessitate a revision of how we refer to those treated in hospitals.
The word 'treated' is also instructive as to if and how we accord human dignity to those who suffer. Timothy Khoo
