This is horrible! Beginning to heal after rape is a long, slow process. Many rape victims require decades of work before they find peace.

And it’s hard! So hard. Those decades are spent wrestling with intense self-loathing. The world is a dark, terrifying reality. We can’t trust even the people we love.

Every single day of life is triumph! Every single day!

Rape isn’t just physical, it shreds the soul. And reknitting the soul takes hard work. It’s not fair. The one who must do the work is not at fault. The victim has been horrifically sinned against. We can rant and rage but the only way to victory is to do the long, hard job of reknitting.

Helping a victim find patience, face the rage, do the hard work is what doctors and healthcare professionals do. Humans are much stronger than we want to admit. (We used to know that.) Death is not the victory some imagine. Certainly, there are souls who are so wounded, they can only see hope in death. The job of those who are not wounded is to take walk with the devastated and show them they can flourish without killing their children. They can flourish after undergoing horrific assaults. They can flourish even after devastating losses. Helping them kill themselves is taking the part of the rapist. It is telling victims that they have no value. Assisted suicide hands victory to the rapists and makes rapists of the very people whose job is to assist in healing.