I have been reading all your posts about this and I see your point of view. But I would like to share a personal story. It relates to the subject of your sermon as follows: I am going to describe the two year horror that my mom experienced and tell you that I believe one of my sisters (at least) will be extremely interested in assisted suicide if she sees herself going down the same path. I myself have decided to try and keep the means for suicide at hand for the same reason. My mom had a right brain stroke taking away her ability to see things on her left side. She had subsequent brain events that might have been some kind of seizure or additional strokes. The most awful part of the stroke was that it left her with psychotic episodes (not all the time, but pretty much every evening and night) in which she was convinced she was away from her (girlhood) home, and her mom was worried sick about her. She would repeatedly try to call her mother (who died 20 years before). She would try to get up and go to the parking lot to transport herself home, sometimes believing she would catch the bus, sometimes thinking she could drive, etc. She also thought people had stolen her furniture and that she was being held captive. Her psychiatrist prescribed anti-psychotics. These would help for a while (days to a couple of weeks) then would build up in her system causing her to be immobile and requiring complete assistance to get to the toilet, get in a wheel chair, everything. Then they would lower the dose or stop the medication. Her mobility would return, but so would her delusions. She was in psychic agony, and despite taking her to multiple doctors, she was never free of this horrific cycle of symptoms. She finally had a heart attack and died.

There was not a time when assisted suicide would have come up in the care of my mom. But for her children who saw this happening and got the nightly calls to come to the nursing home (or 3000 miles away, the daily calls where she told of her plight), unable to help her no matter what we tried, we all were left wanting to be certain this never happens to us. Consequently, I don't think your arguments against assisted suicide apply to, for example, my sister were she to have such a stroke and ask for help committing suicide in a lucid period. Because it was quite evident to us that the medical community has no answer for my mother's type of misery. She had excellent insurance (retired military wife) and an estate that paid for good care. Two of her daughters lived very near and went to see her multiple times a week. I spent a week with her once a quarter during this time, as I live across the country, and so did my brother. I would be interested in your reaction to this situation.