A DNR (do not resuscitate) order is NOT the same as suicide. Suicide is actually taking of one's own life, or having someone"help". But DNR is for terminally ill patients who have suffered and will die in a short amount of time. All life is precious and a God- given gift. Who should not mess around with it . God has the days of our lives recorded in His Book. I know if I was seriously and terminally ill, I would not want to endure suffering nor would I want the burden and expense of being kept alive put on my kids. I had to make tough choices when my 37 yr old husband suffered a severe stroke with brain death after he had open-heart surgery. I knew he would not want kept alive on machines. And he never thought of signing a DNR. Never thought it'd be necessary. Guess one never knows.

 This is not any sort of suicide. The clue is in the word "resuscitate". We do not often use this word now to mean that someone is aided to regain consciousness, I take it that you mean it to be brought back to life after what would otherwise have been a fatal event. In this case - you are dead, but can be resuscitated if appropriate medical intervention happens within a few minutes of death. A dead person cannot suicide. A living person is saying - when I die, let me go = DNR. As far as I gather, those who have religious beliefs against suicide, assisted or self administered, do so because they say only God should decide when a person dies. That being the case I would have thought that the same beliefs would rule out resuscitation. Or am I wrongly expecting religion to be consistent?

 No there asking for gods will to take over.

 Not a passive suicide, but a decision to NOT exist on one of those infernal machines, and pose great costs on my surviving family. I sure don't want to ruin their lives like that.

 Suicide is the taking of your life by unnatural means. A do not resusitate order, is allowing nature to take its natural course. If a true believer in God, you are letting God choose your fate.

 1st i would like to take exception to robbie's words: " to have a life with an active brain without any means of communication. That, to me, is hell, not life."
well robbie hell is here to tell you that it ain't so bad. My brain goes at a quick pace & boy if i could speak...lol
re: This debate ~ a dnr is taking pressure off the loved one's and also to ease and infinitely relieve any pain & suffering which may be ongoing to the patient. I believe suicide is a long thought out plan to purposefully end one's life whether ill or well. I see them as 2 separate issues.

 It is only suicide if in the mind of the person who is asking for it believes it is so ,as in intentionally killing themselves by not taking steps to prevent death....that is not to say that people do not do this...if you have watched anyone die from cancer,where even the most powerful drugs can not even begin to mask the pain... You would not want to be brought back to life....i agree that the lord decides when your being called home...

 Of course not. I have standing orders that if I am in such a state that I no longer have my faculties when certain irreversible conditions occur, no extraordinary measures be taken to sustain my life. That includes resuscitation.

Suicide implies a desire to end one's life. I have no desire to die, but neither do I wish to be kept alive as a vegetable. I also don't want to have a life with an active brain without any means of communication. That, to me, is hell, not life.

It's true that doctors are able to accomplish things that were unheard of just ten years ago, but there is still a limit to what they can do.

After seeing what some people I was close had to endure, I firmly believe we human beings want to prolong the lives of loved ones because it makes them feel better to be able to hang on. It not out of concern for the patient. I know that sounds harsh, but I've been guilty of wanting to see someone's life prolonged. I was feeling sorry for myself.

 I wouldn't call it suicide. Suicide is the act of causing ones own death. It can be positive (when one takes his own life) or negative (when one does not do what is necessary to escape death such as leaving a burning building). It may be direct (the intention of causing ones own death, whether as an end to be attained, or as a means to another end, as when a man kills himself to escape condemnation, disgrace, ruin, etc. Or it can be Indirect (not usually called suicide - when one does not desire it as an end or a means, but when one nevertheless commits an act which courts death, as in tending someone with SARS knowing that they may well succumb to the same illness).
So with the above in mind, how can you compare a DNR order wit suicide?

 I don't feel it is committing passive suicide. In certain cases, if a person is seriously ill and there isn't a cure (in my fathers case), and the person is just going to get worse, why in the world would they want to go through that. On the other hand some people believe when it is there time to go, they want to leave it at that, that they do not want to fight nature.

 If they do not wish to be resusitated it is because they want to die peacefully and not be messed around with when chances are they will be unable to be resusitated. This is not suicide and people who sign a DNR are usually old and are in a lot of pain so they have lived there life and if they happen to stop breathing they don't really need to be resussitated anyway.

 So what you are saying is that by me asking not to be revived, I am making a decision to commit a crime of suicide (yes, suicide as with taking anyone's life is a crime). I don't believe this is true. If it were, then the government would step in and not allow the form at all as it would be the predecessor leading to the crime.

By me saying DNR, I am asking that I do not want to be connected to machines to keep me alive. God has chosen this time for me to pass and to bring me back from death would be against my beliefs. I am not afraid of death but I am sure some people are and would refuse to sign the DNR to extend their life.

I have also talked to my children about this and they understand that if machines are needed to keep me alive, it is not the quality of life I want to lead and make other people care for me. They are well aware to pull the plug and that they are not killing me as I am already dead.