Israel's ex-PM Ariel Sharon dies

[Jimbuna]

Not surprising when you consider the fact he has been in a coma for the past eight years.

Loved and admired by so many yet also hated by many.

RIP Sir

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has died aged 85 after spending eight years in a coma following a stroke.

Mr Sharon was a giant of the Israeli military and political scene, but courted controversy throughout his long career.

The head of the Sheba Medical Centre near Tel Aviv said he had died on Saturday afternoon of heart failure.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25696601

[Wolferz]

Shalom.

[Skybird]

8 years in Coma, and that at his age. If I would be held in coma that long, I would like to have some very angry words with those deciding for that.

Not everything that medically can be done, should be done, I think.

I carry a card in my wallet and have a patient's will printed out, both stating clearly that I do object to any such measurements being carried out on me if according events should happen to me and certain conditions worsen beyond a certain critical level. When your time has come, then your time has come. Sharon's time they missed by over 7 years, I think.

[August]

Originally Posted by Skybird

8 years in Coma, and that at his age. If I would be held in coma that long, I would like to have some very angry words with those deciding for that.

But how would you know? You'd be in a coma. I'd bet that if you came out of a coma after 8 years you'd be glad someone hadn't pulled your plug in the meantime.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by August

But how would you know? You'd be in a coma. I'd bet that if you came out of a coma after 8 years you'd be glad someone hadn't pulled your plug in the meantime.

I would not be so certain of that, if I were you. Have you ever witnessed somebody waking up from coma after very long time, his struggle to find back into life, the shock, and the horror he faces when realising what happened, his inability to deal with the present situation, even his own body? I have. Nothing I would want to repeat myself. Not to mention the physical challenge you face after a multiple years coma. Not to mention the high age, in Sharon's age. Not to mention the immense burden and delayed opportunity of saying farewell by the next of kin, and what that delay does to their lives and psyches. Last but not least, the financial costs.

Also, you do not know what people may or may not experience in coma. There are a small handful of very malicious infections and disease that bypass the normal neural signal processing in the brain, their pain is being felt even if you are unconscious or under heavy anesthesia, all brain instances where drugs try to interrupt pain signal processing get bypassed, so the pain cannot be eased. Being buried alive in a coffin is a mercy, compared to being in agony for years, if fate strikes you.

It may be an individual decision, okay. But for me the decision is clear, and for my parents as well. Beyond a certain timeframe of days, some weeks, we would not want to be kept alive in coma. Also not if the survival is only at the cost of serious brain damages. Well, more stuff like that that for legal reasons I have specified in that document. Beyond a certain point, I do not want medical treatment anymore, only medical assistance to suppress physical pain and be enabled to leave as peacefully as possible.

Many people do not dare to imagine how high the costs for "life at all cost" can become - especially for the affected individual, but its family as well.

There is a time to fight for your life and to hang on. But at some point of time it is better to let go. Not all stories have happy-ends. In the end, there also is something important that in hospitals and in intensive care facilities faces the constant danger of getting ignored, getting forgotten: human dignity.

[Oberon]

He did well in the Yom Kippur war, but his earlier military career...well...

Let's just leave it that he was a divisive leader, and may he rest in peace.

[August]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Have you ever witnessed somebody waking up from coma

No but I have seen people whose bodies have turned on them fight and strive for every breath long after those who know and love them hope that they will die just to end their suffering. Life is precious. Not all of us are so eager to give it up.

Nothing I would want to repeat myself.

Well knowing you for all these years I seriously doubt that you'd have trouble finding someone to pull your plug.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Wolferz

Shalom.

LOL.

[MH]

Did Sharon have a plan to reconcile with the Palestinians and to address their plight or their right to return to their land? Not at all, we do not have any evidence of Sharon’s remorse. The logic behind Sharon’s disengagement is simple on the verge of banal. Sharon knew very well that if Israel insisted to maintain itself as the ‘Jewish State’, it would have to rid itself immediately of Arabs. Late Sharon was becoming aware of the possible implications of the ‘Palestinian demographic bomb’. The Palestinians were becoming a majority in areas controlled by Israel.
Ridding Israel of the highly populated Gaza strip was a perfect start. In a single political and territorial move, Sharon freed Israel of 1.5 million Palestinians and liberated Israel of growing complex security issues. Sharon was a pragmatist politician, he’s always been one and his disengagement wasn’t at all an attempt to “face the demons of 1948” as Freedland suggests: It was a Judeo-centric attempt to maintain the Jewishness of the Jewish State

Thanks alex.
Even the author of this confuzed piece of crap admits that Sharon was pragmatic politician.
Now...where that places the author and you ???lol

Grow up.

Nice sig , keeps crying for attention lol

[August]

Originally Posted by MH

Nice sig , keeps crying for attention lol

Any excuse to put up a picture of Hitler.

[Skybird]

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news...obituary?all=1