True Self-Sacrifice

[guido911]

The line at Heaven probably starts with this woman:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,325458,00.html

[sgrizzle]

I know Dr House would have a different opinion but from the sounds of it, her chances were iffy at best even if she had terminated.

Great story.

[guido911]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

I know Dr House would have a different opinion but from the sounds of it, her chances were iffy at best even if she had terminated.

Great story.

Oh, then nevermind then. She did not make any sacrifice. Jeez.

[sgrizzle]

quote:Originally posted by guido911

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

I know Dr House would have a different opinion but from the sounds of it, her chances were iffy at best even if she had terminated.

Great story.

Oh, then nevermind then. She did not make any sacrifice. Jeez.

I didn't say that.

[guido911]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

quote:Originally posted by guido911

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

I know Dr House would have a different opinion but from the sounds of it, her chances were iffy at best even if she had terminated.

Great story.

Oh, then nevermind then. She did not make any sacrifice. Jeez.

I didn't say that.

Whatever griz...out

[rwarn17588]

I didn't know there was a line.

That sucks. I don't want heaven to be like a DMV office. Or a doctor's office.

You'd think the Omnipotent One would run things more like a QuikTrip or something. She needs to call Chet Cadieux, stat.

[Ibanez]

Same thing happened to a friend of mine about 10 years ago.

He and his wife had been trying for a baby for a couple of years without much success. Finally they got pregnant and about 3 months into it they discovered his wife had cancer. Doctor told them that they had caught it early enough there was a 90% chance they could "knock it out" but that by doing so she would lose the baby. She said no to treatment. Died about 30 minutes after giving birth.

Then to really kick my friend in the balls the universe decided to have their house burn to the ground the same day as his wife's funeral.

How he kept it all together I will never know.

[guido911]

quote:Originally posted by wavoka

Same thing happened to a friend of mine about 10 years ago.

He and his wife had been trying for a baby for a couple of years without much success. Finally they got pregnant and about 3 months into it they discovered his wife had cancer. Doctor told them that they had caught it early enough there was a 90% chance they could "knock it out" but that by doing so she would lose the baby. She said no to treatment. Died about 30 minutes after giving birth.

Then to really kick my friend in the balls the universe decided to have their house burn to the ground the same day as his wife's funeral.

How he kept it all together I will never know.

That is tough.

[rwarn17588]

Back to topic ...

My family doctor wrote his memoirs after his retirement. In the 1950s or '60s, he told about examining a woman who was about three months pregnant, and it was determined she had a very fast-growing form of cervical cancer. At that time, there was no way the baby could be carried long enough to live. With no action, you would have had a dead baby and a dead woman.

So my doctor urged her to have an abortion with a total hysterectomy, undergo cancer treatment, and then, if things went well, to adopt a child. The procedure was done at the local Catholic hospital, with the complete support of the priest in charge.

She recovered from the treatment, she and her husband adopted a child, and everything went very well. In his book, the doctor said the woman (who was unnamed) was still alive decades later, and the adopted child was a well-adjusted adult.

I had mixed feelings about reading that story above. It's somewhat admirable, but you're leaving a rather large family without a mother because she declined the treatments. (And with the child taken by C-section prematurely, that was pretty dicey, too.)

I would have been more inclined to abort, fight the cancer for the hope of living a longer life, and try to have another child later if she felt so inclined.

I don't think there is a right answer or wrong answer with situations such as these. It would have been a tragedy either way.

I hope the husband and kids, over time, come to grips with that decision and feel it was the right thing. But there's no guarantee they will feel that way.

Ultimately, it was her choice -- choice being the crucial word.

[RecycleMichael]

quote:Originally posted by rwarn17588
I don't think there is a right answer or wrong answer with situations such as these. It would have been a tragedy either way.

Well said.

[guido911]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

quote:Originally posted by rwarn17588
I don't think there is a right answer or wrong answer with situations such as these. It would have been a tragedy either way.

Well said.

The tragedy here is calling what happened a tragedy. I see the decision made by this woman the ultimate act of love for her child. An act of selflessness in a largely selfish world. I equate her act to the soldier falling on a live grenade to save a comrade or the presidential bodyguard placing himself between his charge and an assassin's bullet. God bless that mother and her family, and all those who have given their life for another.

[rwarn17588]

<guido wrote:

The tragedy here is calling what happened a tragedy.

<end clip?>

Whaaaa??

Holy non sequitur, Batman.

[we vs us]

quote:Originally posted by rwarn17588

<guido wrote:

The tragedy here is calling what happened a tragedy.

<end clip?>

Whaaaa??

Holy non sequitur, Batman.

"Yay for awful situations?"

I got nothin'.

[guido911]

quote:Originally posted by rwarn17588

<guido wrote:

The tragedy here is calling what happened a tragedy.

<end clip?>

Whaaaa??

Holy non sequitur, Batman.

Holy "I do not know what a non sequitur is" Batman.

RW's know-it-all-itis strikes again...