The Economics of Death and the Sanctity of Life

I just had to copy this one....from LICC. George is SO right. :

Strangely, the global economics crisis has done a disservice to campaigners for the legalisation of euthanasia. As we knuckle down for a worldwide recession, facing the misery of slashed public services, rising unemployment and flat-lining growth figures, it’s difficult to imagine political leaders telling us to cheer up because they’ve made it easier for us to kill ourselves.

That really tells us all we need to know about the mindset of those who favour voluntary euthanasia, or ‘assisted dying’ as it’s now branded. Their motivation is less about compassion than consumerism. In a booming economy, in which consumption and instant gratification are the motors of growth, we worship at the altar of Choice. We can buy our lifestyles and satisfy all our material needs with unbounded credit. And if we can buy the way we live, why should we not order the way and time that we die?

Now that the consumerist harvest is withering on the vine, we’re re-assessing all kinds of ethical standards. Among these is the nature of what really constitutes human life and its validation. People of faith – not just Christians – feel instinctively that there is something disordered in helping or encouraging another human being to die. We seek justification for that instinct in the rather vague phraseology of ‘the sanctity of life’, an expression that is thrown back by euthanasia lobbyists, who have also misappropriated the word ‘dignity’.

So we must say what we mean. And it is this: we believe that everyone, without exception, is made in God’s image – which means that no life, however physically diminished or materially deprived, is worth less than another. That principle enjoys its recognition in the way we nurture, cherish and comfort those who have come to depend utterly upon the able-bodied.

Furthermore, we reject morally the notion that those who are frail, elderly or terminally ill in some way have elected to suffer if they reject an assisted death. That is why it is not only virtuous for a society, but also holy for human beings, to pour all their efforts and resources into the loving work of palliative care rather than the concept of death as a clinical treatment.

These articles of faith are too precious to fail; we need them to live on in the hearts and minds of our legislators. They define us as a people and as a civilisation.

George Pitcher

George Pitcher is an Anglican priest and author of A Time to Live: The Case Against Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia (Monarch, 2010).

A time to die?

(see earlier blogs on this subject)

Someone said to me the day after father-in-law Len was taken to hospital having suffered a massive stroke: ‘You know what used to happen before hospitals; the old doctor would come round and give ‘em an injection…a bit extra…you know.’
Whether that was true or not, it was certainly possible. After all, we now know how easy it was for Harold Shipman…..
I am not suggesting for one moment that my friend mentioned above was advocating euthanasia, but it’s appeal is obvious.

I have read many of the arguments for euthanasia, and I remain firmly convinced that it violates the command ‘You shall do no murder’ Ex 20 v13.

I know of people lovingly caring for elderly relatives who range from needing a little extra help to completely gaga, and do so for years without complaining. Those who care for the latter must often pray to God that He would take them to be with Him. And it doesn’t happen. My heart goes out to them as they labour on unseen (but seen by God) month after month and year after year. For them I have included the link at the end.

From my own recent experience I want to say this:
Len taught us, as he lay there unable to speak, that there is a reason why the prayer for release may not be answered as soon as we want it to be…..
The time will come, but it is not yet.
The days we spent around Len’s bed (and Cindy and her twin sisters held vigil cheerfully without sleep all night on the last night) was so precious that we would not have missed it for all the world.
We all, including his wife Joyce, had prayed for him to go on his journey, but he lived for four further days…times when tears were shed, of course, but also times of celebration, wonderful memories relived, laughter, hugs, around the bed. Len was listening, and when the sedation was wearing off, he made it known.

I think in those ‘extra’ days we caught a glimpse of heaven. Certainly we reaffirmed together our Christian HOPE.

Scott Peck in his best-seller, ‘The Road Less Travelled’, describes love as something to be worked at:
'Love, in short, is work, and the basic form this work takes is attention. When we love, we attend to the growth of others …. love requires important work and great effort!'

The ‘Let’s have done and be off’ attitude doesn’t fit, does it.
Hard though it may be sometimes, we must ‘wait on the Lord’. There are yet things to be learned…

LINKS:
A link for those who care for elderly relatives:
http://www.careforthefamily.org.uk/pdf/supportnet/SN-CaringForElderlyRelatives.pdf
A link for the bereaved:
http://www.careforthefamily.org.uk/pdf/supportnet/EFIUnderstandingBereavement.pdf