Recently an Oshawa Presbytery committee I chair completed its business earlier than usual so the assemble clergy and laypeople chatted for a few minutes after adjournment. Somehow we got on to "end of life" issues and I mentioned the seminars we held in October on End of Life Issues and Funeral Planning. I have now shared the outline and information we used with several colleagues. One of those colleagues asked if we addressed assisted suicide and euthanasia, which we didn't. While I am confident that Dr. Debra Jefferson could have spoken about this thoughtfully we realized that this was an aspect of the discussion which could easily be an evening or two in itself.
This past week the Globe and Mail newspaper has offered a worthwhile series of articles on end of life issues, including assisted suicide. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/end-of-life/
Have any of you followed these articles? Have you given much thought to euthanasia -- being a frustrated parent doesn't count! Should this be the next frontier for discussion at St. Paul's?
I was intrigued by Lorna Dueck's editorial in the Globe about this issue stating clearly that clergy are needed in this debate.
ReplyDeleteI thought her interpretation that when one asks for a release from suffering when the journey is too slow, stopping treatment or increasing morphine to palliate death isn't about killing but rather about dying was a wise perspective.
I don' t anticipate there will ever be a great enthusiasm for this discussion in churches, but I do think if our faith is meant to be a compass for living, and we are moving toward an understanding that dying is just a part of life, the discussion does need to happen.