Opposition is not uniform. A few denominations, like the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, with about 22,000 members in Massachusetts, officially support the concept. The Unitarians and other mainline Protestant denominations typically do not take positions on specific state proposals.<\/p>\n
And, in an age when many ecclesiastical hierarchies are weakening, in a country where many people are used to filtering religious beliefs through personal and secular lenses, \u00c2\u00adindividual clergy and congregants do not necessarily follow the lead of church officials.<\/p>\n
The national Episcopal Church, for example, officially opposes physician-assisted suicide. But the Rev. Daphne B. Noyes, a deacon at the Church of the Advent in Boston and a hospital chaplain, said her work with dying people and their families has led her to \u00c2\u00adbelieve the option should be available under rigorously limited circumstances that ensure that participation by all parties is voluntary and deliberate.<\/p>\n