I can’t judge someone else’s decisions-
A couple of years ago, I took a college class entitled Death, Dying, and Bereavement. It was a fascinating class. We talked about different types of death, bereavement, and the act of dying. One of the topics covered was whether people should have the right to choose their death when they are terminally ill.
As a Christian, as a person, I have always been vehemently against physician-assisted death. I believe that all life is sacred. Not always a walk in the park, but it wasn’t meant to be a bed of roses all the time.
When we approached this topic for the class. I was hesitant to sit through the portion on physician-assisted suicide. This class was already a draining and emotional class. I worried as I lived in Washington, a state that condoned physician-assisted death, about the attitudes I would find within our discussions.
To start off our studies of this issue we watched a documentary of a man who had flown, I believe it was to Switzerland, to end his life. He had a degenerative disease and his life would end with him slowly suffocating to death. As a person who has mild claustrophobia, I cannot imagine a worse death. He and his wife walked us through all the discussions they had with family and doctors, and the film rolled as he was given the medicine to put him to sleep for the last time.
I believe it is important to look at issues not just philosophically or religiously, but also through the lens and context of an actual person’s circumstance and life.
Calleen Petersen
It doesn’t change a religious truth, but it can put it into a better-understood context.
This is why Jesus told stories.
Towards the end of the semester, we had a guest lecturer. A doctor who had assisted in about 30 deaths. We learned that the process is very tightly controlled, and it isn’t an easy thing to get approved. The person must go through psychological examinations as well as physical. They must be found cognitively sound to make the decision. And no one but themselves is entitled to make the decision for them. We learned that although people may have the prescription for the medicine to enable them to end their lives, many in the end, choose not to use it. She spoke of the conflict that many doctors feel about this issue and that it is important that there is continued discussion and thought about it so that it is never used in a way that takes away someone’s autonomy.
When I walked away at the end of the semester from this class, I left it changed. I was more compassionate about the choices people make. People, who are in horrific pain where there is no relief and never will be? I can’t judge them. The closest I’ve come to that is before my first back surgery. The pain was exquisite. If I had had to deal with that day in and day out for the rest of my life for some reason? The toll would take not just physically but emotionally and spiritually on my body would be untold.
Someone who will literally suffocate excruciatingly slowly before they die?
I can’t judge them on their choices.
And this newfound realization that I cannot in good conscience judge them? It doesn’t just extend to end-of-life experiences.
I haven’t walked their walk. But Christ did. I’ll leave the judgement up to him.
