Life in the balance

The last three graf's in an Associated Press story on Pope John Paul II's ailing condition:

"Hospitalized twice last month following two breathing crises, and fitted with a breathing tube and a feeding tube, John Paul has become a picture of suffering.
"His 26-year papacy has been marked by its call to value the aged and to respect the sick, subjects the pope has turned to as he battles Parkinson’s disease and crippling knee and hip ailments.
"It is not clear who would be empowered to make medical decisions for an unconscious pope. The Vatican has officially declined to comment whether John Paul has left written instructions."

For his sake, I hope he left instructions. Otherwise, when the time comes we may watch, God forbid, a sea of religious right zealots protest the removal of his feeding tube or other artificial means of supporting life, while the Pope waits to go on to his creator.

Those who cannot acknowledge the right to die, babbling nonsense about creating a "culture of life," don't know much about what life really is. Life is being able to make choices--including choices about the kind of life one would or would not want to live. Lying in a hospital bed with no conscious awareness is not life; cruelly, it is not death either.

We can "value the aged" and "respect the sick" not just by caring for them when they are weak, but also by honoring even their most difficult wishes--and sometimes that means letting go.

I know it is hard to say goodbye to those we love. But when my time comes, if you really love me, let me go.