The Rev. Duke Tufty, pastor, Unity Temple on the Plaza, Kansas City: I don’t believe the church or its clergy should dictate or even take a position on such a deeply personal matter as assisted suicide. Rabbis, ministers and priests aren’t qualified to determine when one should go on living and when one can be set free. That can be decided only by the person who possesses the life.
Personally, I believe if a person is facing psychological challenges that have left him or her in a deep state of despair and depression but are not life-threatening, assisted suicide should not be an available option. If a person is facing physical challenges that cannot be healed, has less than six months to live, and the illness is going to be a continual source of suffering, there should be a process where the person can meet with a panel of three physicians to decide if assisted suicide is the best option, taking all things into consideration.
First he says ministers shouldn’t have a position and then he told us his personal position. What a dork!
And I bet he has a strong opinion about whether I carry a gun!
Just guessin’
I would have liked the newspaper to have interviewed more faith leaders being careful to include non Christian clergy too.
As for Tufty’s statement that the churches and clergy should not take a position on deeply personal matters I thought that was one of the essential roles of faith in our lives.
Whatever an individual does is between him and his God, but asking the state to sanction “assisted suicide ” (i.e., murder) and asking health professionals to participate in that murder is wrong.
I’ve always thought “assisted suicide” was the mystery genre’s description of getting away with murder.
It certainly would be nice to have a thought out, internally consistent statement. This does read like something not thought-through.
The sentence “That can be decided only by the person who possesses the life.†already declares that He has taken a position in favor of potential suicide, the only ambivalence is toward assisted life or unassisted murder.
Then in his next paragraph, he negates his first statement that “only†the sufferer is qualified to decide, by making a decision about a particular kind of suffering. How is mental anguish actually different from physical? Further, the sufferer, who alone is competent to decide this “deeply personal matterâ€, must then submit his decision to a bureaucratic tribunal.
I perhaps should not mock so much, but I think this is an example of the truncated thinking of many who favor assisted suicide (I use to be one) One must carry the ideas all the way to the bitter end, especially when contemplating the bitter end.
Most frightening in my mind is that a “right to die,†will inevitably become a “duty to dieâ€, particularly under socialized medicine.
Assisted suicide (e.g. doctor perscribed murder) is wrong and evil.
There is a huge line between withholding care and active measures to kill a person.
There is also a huge line between giving a person a sufficient dose of narcotics to relieve the pain where that dose may cause death. If the primary goal is the relief from pain then that is allowed. However, if you give a dose to kill the patient, then it is murder (perhaps not legal murder, but moral murder).
Our lives are not our own. Life (even non-Christian life) belongs to God.
[blockquote] don’t believe the church or its clergy should dictate or even take a position on such a deeply personal matter as assisted suicide. Rabbis, ministers and priests aren’t qualified to determine when one should go on living and when one can be set free. That can be decided only by the person who possesses the life.[/blockquote]
What a bunch of BS! As a minister of the Gospel, it is my duty to tell the person that he or she does not possess the life – God possesses it!
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
[blockquote]person who assists in the self-murder[/blockquote]
Would this really be “self murder” if it is assisted? #1. had the same thought I did when (he/she) said that Pastor Duke Tufty said clergy should not be involved in the decision making and then offered a prescription for decision making.
Assisted Suicide is ethically and morally wrong. Certainly from any Biblical standpoint… it denies the sanctity of life as does abortion. But what seems to be naive is that it will move from choice and assisted suicide (with doctors doing harm) to require one euthanize because you have become a financial burden to society and it is your obligation for the sake of the future generation to end your life…..it is coming just a matter of time and natural progression.
The slippery slope is indeed one that once started will lead to places we simply do not want to go….
It is coming as we ethically and morally depart from Biblical Morality.
Sad that what is obvious is not to so many.
#8. Creighton+,
Do you remember “Logan’s Run” the Science Fiction story, movie and TV series”
[blockquote]In the world of 2116, a person’s maximum age is strictly legislated: twenty-one years, to the day. When people reach this Lastday they report to a Sleepshop in which they are willingly executed. A person’s age is revealed by their palm flower — a crystal embedded in the palm of their right hand that changes color every seven years, then turns black on Lastday.[/blockquote] (from Wikipedia) It is only a matter of time (and before 2116) when this will be a reality series not science fiction.
Excellent piece in this month’s First Things, Shadows in Amsterdam (http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6555) by Sally Thomas. Unfortunately, it’s still available to subscribers only until next month, but so sorrowful to read. The feeling of being a burden to oneself and one’s family and society is heart-rending. If you want to see the future on this issue, look to the Netherlands.