Last year, my teenage daughter committed suicide; and I have cancer.
In her depression, her mental illness seemed no less terminal than my physical illness does to me. Depression's not just feeling miserable when life's dark, gloomy and raining - it's feeling miserable also when the sun comes out. We get hopeless, emotionally disengaged (flat) and yet increasingly despairing as we realise that our negativity & problems are becoming a burden to others (in spite of what they say), and get this - that it would be an act of love to relieve those we love of that burden by committing suicide.
Moreover, we're persuaded by our mental illness that our condition's fateful and its 'logical' conclusion inevitable - i.e. terminal. For the leaders of Labour, Act and the Greens to tell NZ'ers that it's okay to opt out of life when you believe that your illness is terminal sends the wrong message to those most at risk. We need leaders who are not part of the problem but part of the solution - with the sufficient faith, hope & love to support and value life...not with a permissive liberal view on abortion and euthanasia that permits and supports its annihilation.
