Editor’s note. A wonderful story. Please drop me your thoughts at daveandrusko@hotmail.com.

Over the years NRL has been blessed by the presence of countless powerful speakers at its annual national convention. Near the top, for me, is Mark Pickup, a Canadian disability rights activist who has refused to allow his progressive MS to define him or deflate him. Mark’s blog is one I try to read early in the morning, it’s that good.

Monday’s edition begins by sending the reader to a link that had been forwarded to Mark. A "most profound 1 minute video called 'In the Blink of an Eye,’" is the way Mark describes a remarkably life-affirming video about Dr. Rachamim Melamed-Cohen.  (You can view it for yourself at www.aish.com/movies/blinkofeye.asp.)

Dr. Melamed-Cohen, the former National Supervisor of Educational Programming for Israel's Department of Education, is completely immobilized with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Some 14 years ago, when given the diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, he was told he had only three to five years to live.

"Three of the doctors who attended on him have since died," wrote Sara Yoheved Rigler," but Rachamim Melamed-Cohen, while completely paralyzed, is still going strong." According to the video he has written nine books, six of them by means of a computer that types based on his eye movements.

In a profile written by Rabbi Yisrael Rutman, we learn that Melamed-Cohen is an outspoken opponent of the euthanasia movement.

"What is mercy-killing?" he asks Rabbi Rutman. "For whom is the mercy? Is it for the person with an illness? Or is it for the family, so that they should not have to suffer? For the medical establishment, to reduce expenditures? For the insurance companies? Mercy means helping others to live, and with dignity. Helping people to cut their lives short cannot be called mercy."

Melamed-Cohen emphasizes that "the cessation of life-sustaining measures, 'pulling the plug,’ is forbidden by Jewish law." He adds,

"In the last two years, I have been fighting with senior medical officials and journalists who advocate euthanasia. I am trying to be a mouthpiece for all those people who want to go on living, but are subjected to tremendous pressure by an 'enlightened society.' Instead of devoting our efforts and resources to persuade people to die, it would be better to direct them toward improving the conditions of those for whom a cure has not yet been found."

He emphasizes what is, to us, a transparently obvious truth: advocacy of euthanasia has ripple effects far beyond the realm of the "terminally ill."

"The euthanasia movement threatens to redefine the very meaning, and sanctity, of human life," Melamed-Cohen told Rabbi Rutman. "Life today is becoming cheaper and cheaper."

On his blog, Mark Pickup reminds us of a crucial truth--

"Every life has value, not just healthy lives. Life’s greatest teacher is life itself. Life is a journey that involves the ecstasy of mountain tops as well as the shadows of deep valleys. Just as God said to Joshua, He also says to you and me:

"Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1.9.)

You can read Mark Pickup’s blog by going to http://humanlifematters.blogspot.com