hell on earth

So....I know I'm behind, but Sara and I watched "Million Dollar Baby" this past weekend. We figured that it was one of those movies that won every award out there and maybe we should see it. So after several years since it has been out we watched it. As with most movies Sara and I tend to talk about them afterwards. Lately pretty much every movie has resulted in us trying to integrate our theology with the context of the film. Ergo, we have Million Dollar Baby. At the very end *no spoiler, don't worry* when Clint Eastwood is presented with a choice of assisting in the death of Hilary Swank he has to make an enormously difficult decision. End her life as she has requested or keep her alive and help her see that life is a beautiful thing and if anyone can do it, she can.

As Sara and me discussed this, the question was brought up on what we would do and if we were presented with this decision. Clearly the first thought and to many the only thought you could have would be to keep them alive. But what if keeping the person alive was literally hell for them. Now, I am not claiming to understand how heaven and hell work, but, is it possible to have your version of hell here on earth? I think of someone who has had a horrific accident and now has to live their life unable to move anything besides their mouth to blow into a straw as to maintain extremely limited functionality. I feel like this is maybe this person's version of hell. Maybe they were once highly active and and seemingly limitless mobility. (now of course this is saying that there is something wrong with someone who is in this state. Does someone who functions in this way have something wrong with them because they can't walk, talk, function like the majority of humanity? That is a whole other topic to be discussed. Maybe it is us who has something wrong with us in thinking someone in this state needs our pity, sympathy or concern?)

Maybe it's an elderly person who has lived a great life and is suffering with cancer or chronic pain. They ask for their life to be taken from them because they will spend the remainder of their life on a hospital bed accruing massive amounts of debt and used resources and most importantly in nearly unbearable pain. Does it seem just to keep this person alive in what they might say feels like hell, because it can get no worse. Do we let them suffer?  Of course you can put almost any scenario in place and ask if it could be hell for someone? Maybe it's not hell, maybe it's just a bad circumstance that happens to random people but I think it is something worth thinking about and asking the question?

Does hell exist here on earth and not just in some made up after life that no one one earth really knows about?!?!?