Self Defense

By Myron Horst

We live in a time that has different challenges and problems than what our grandparents ever had to face. The following situation is something that each of us is more likely to face than ever before.

A person comes into your house and is going to kill your wife. What would you do?

  1. Shoot them
  2. Tell them to leave.
  3. Quick take pictures or video with your phone.
  4. Not know what to do, so you do nothing.
  5. Pray.
  6. Sit beside your wife while she dies and hold her hand.

Most people would do number 6, just sit there and hold her hand while she dies. Even the macho men with their closets full of guns and ammo! As much as they believe in self defense, they would not defend her because they do not recognize what is happening. It is not the type of self defense situation that they were expecting or prepared for.

It is best not to answer a hypothetical question like I asked (“what would you do?”) because you do not know all the facts. In this case, the scenario that I am thinking about is not a person with a gun, but a situation that we are more likely to face with hospice or healthcare. It is important that we are alert to what is happening and not get deceived with the code language – “making them comfortable”.

We have been observing older people under hospice care being sedated with morphine and other medications to the point where they can no longer eat or drink. The end comes quickly. When a person is heavily sedated, it is difficult to really know if they are really that close to death or if it is the medication that is preventing them from living. The following are two cases where medication would have killed the patient if the medication had not been stopped.

My sister is currently in Florida helping a friend of hers, who we will call Mary, who is terminally ill. This lady is a heavy smoker and has continued to smoke even though she is on oxygen. Because of that, Hospice dropped her and refused to care for her even though she desperately needed help.

The following are several excerpts from emails that my sister sent:
“I pointed out how we wondered what was going on with Hospice dismissing her and why God would allow that to happen to her, and that I had prayed that they would take her back. But we now know that if she had continued with Hospice, Mary would most likely no longer be here because of their overdosing of morphine, and then her own accidental overdosing of meds on top of that. When I stopped in to see her on what I thought was my way out of town a week ago, and saw what we all thought then was a major decline in her condition, I estimated she would not last a week. Her nurse said today she had thought the same thing.”

Four days later:
“Today we had a major answer to prayer when a doctor signed on to oversee Mary’s care and prescribe her meds, including morphine, when she needs it. However, in the last two weeks Mary has weaned herself down to very low dosages of morphine, only taking it as needed when she gets really short of breath. As she has come off the major dosages of morphine that hospice had prescribed and urged her to take, and the other meds she had accidentally overdosed on while on morphine have worked their way out of her system, Mary has become much more herself again: alert most of the time and clear minded.

“The really good news is that the new doc doesn’t think her death is very imminent, and she is going to work at reducing Mary’s use of morphine to as small a dose as possible so that she can be as clear-minded as possible for as long as possible. She is also going to prescribe physical therapy to help Mary regain use of her legs and be able to bear her own weight again, since it was just two weeks ago that she was able to walk to the bathroom and back again. It’s a whole different perspective now in Mary’s condo, as this doc has brought a focus on life rather than on death. Mary’s illness is still a terminal one, but I remember six years ago her doctor telling her she only had six months to live. But he was wrong, and she has done a lot of living in the six years since.”

A similar potentially fatal medication situation happened to my uncle under Hospice care. He was given a medication that prevented him from swallowing. My aunt, who is a nurse, realized what was happening and stopped giving him that medication. My uncle made her promise not to ever let them do that again. It was awful. “Making them comfortable” can be a horrible way to die.

We live in a day and age which is different than any other time in recent history. We need to be alert to what is happening so that we can protect our loved ones from those who would harm them. I am sure that Hospice is not all bad and that they are a help to many. However, for me, the term “Self Defense” has taken on a new meaning. Guns and bombs are not the only things that kill.

The best self defense in this case is to live right and to eat right so that you do not need the “health care” system at all! That is our mission here at Jehovah-Jireh Farm: to help you be as healthy as we can. We are “More than a farm — A living laboratory researching the secrets of food, health and life.” If we eat the same foods that everyone else is eating we will have the same sicknesses and diseases and need the same healthcare and hospice. If we want different results, we have to eat differently and eat better quality foods than what “everyone” else is eating. Healthier foods cost more, but the costs are small in comparison to the results of cheap GMO, low brix, low calcium, factory farm, and processed foods.

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