Decisions had to be made. He was a proud man, active and strong. He would not have wanted to live like this. What is his quality of life? How can we afford his care? How will we care for him? These were only a fraction of the questions that raced through our minds as dad …
Continue...In my experience, I think most believers who are in end-of-life dilemmas or are thinking about them want to respond faithfully—we want to honor God, and we want to make sure we're being biblical in our approach. The problem I find, though, is that the context is so foreign, and we don’t know how. When …
Continue...When I was a child, one of my relatives developed a debilitating disease that attacked the nervous system. He gradually lost his abilities to speak and to dress himself, and fits of choking seized him at every attempted meal. As a fiercely brilliant man who prized his self sufficiency, over time his loss of independence fractured …
Continue...American culture has a conflicted relationship to death. Maybe that’s because most Americans don’t have to think about it very often. Death is less visible than it used to be. It comes most often to people in their 70s or 80s. It typically happens in sanitized, professionalized institutions most people rarely visit. You might live …
Continue...For centuries, physicians have adhered to the sentiment as described by the Hippocratic Oath. One of the clauses included in the historic commitment is this: “I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect.” Those who subscribe to the oath promise to …
Continue...The movement to legalize assisted suicide has been growing in slow but measurable acceptability in the United States. This year, the District of Columbia joined Oregon, Montana, Washington and Vermont in legalizing the practice. The federal government has oversight of governing decisions of the District, but such oversight is rarely used. In response to the …
Continue...(Note: This is the second in a two part series. Part one can be found here.) Over the past few decades the Dutch have expanded the scope of protected physician killing to include children. With their parent’s permission, a child between the ages of 12 to 16 years old may request and receive assisted suicide. …
Continue...“I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel.” For centuries, the Hippocratic Oath, which included this admonition against assisted suicide and euthanasia formed the core of Western medical ethics. Over the past few decades, though, the Hippocratic ideal has been eroding. Euthanasia—both voluntary and involuntary—and physician-assisted suicide …
Continue...Note: This is the second in a series on euthanasia. Click here to read Part I. Over the past few decades the Dutch have expanded the scope of protected physician killing to include children. With their parent’s permission, a child between the ages of 12 to 16 years old may request and receive assisted suicide. …
Continue...“I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel.” For centuries, the Hippocratic Oath, which included this admonition against assisted suicide and euthanasia formed the core of Western medical ethics. Over the past few decades, though, the Hippocratic ideal has been eroding. Euthanasia—both voluntary and involuntary—is becoming increasingly …
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