rational suicide

People who favor rational suicide usually fall into the camp that says the terminally ill patient has the right to make any decision they want with regard to living or dying. Those who are against a patient taking or having someone help them take their life usually refer to their religious leaning as foundation for their stance. This subject is, by far, the most complicated topic in chapter 3 for me now, and I am sure it will be in the future. I don’t do well with end-of-life situations. I have dealt with many throughout the years in my role as a Pastor. They never get any easier no matter their number. I must confess that I do not do well with hospital visits either, and they are a part of my weekly routine week-in and week-out.

Let me walk through some thoughts about end-of-life decisions,

Most discussions about someone who is terminally ill go something like this

Would you want to live that way?

No.

Then why should they have too?

This is a dangerous assertion!

My view on life or your view on life may be very different if we are the ones they are talking about. This discussion is very common, and it can be labeled the quality-of-life argument. But even when most people use this argument they miss the ethical dilemma it represents. End-of-life issues are really disagreements about whether the fundamental worth human beings is their intrinsic value instrumental value. Quick definitions, instrumental value = a means to an end, intrinsic value = valued for their own sake. We exchange money for things we want. That is instrumental value. Family and friends have intrinsic value because they a good in and of themselves. Things of intrinsic value can have instrumental value, and they can even lose that instrumental value but their intrinsic value remains. If I refer to the “sanctity of life” I am referring to intrinsic value. If someone uses the argument I began this posting with, they are saying that the person is only valuable as long as they are useful. Do you see the slippery slope? This is such a dangerous position because is it entirely subjective. I don’t want to decide who should live or die, and I don’t want anyone else to declare me ready to die before the Lord calls me home Himself.

I guess the bottom line for me is that I would have to treat the patient as someone with hope, and encourage them the best I could. I just don’t really know. As I said at the start, this is my biggest challenge, not only in this chapter, but within my current vocation.

The bottom line for me is: if human life is intrinsically valuable, then it continues to be valuable even when our capacities are limited.

Do you believe, in the instance of terminal illness, that assisted suicide is a private decision?