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Can I Know That My Time Has Come?
Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide
By John P. Burgess

DEATH AND CHRISTIAN WITNESS

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are now matters of public debate. Though defeated, two recent ballot initiatives to legalize physician-assisted death, one in Washington in 1991 and the other in California in 1992, have reflected the public's considerable interest and disagreement. Derek Humphrey's Final Exit and Dr. Jack Kevorkian's "death machines" have added to the controversy. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are no longer matters that people discuss quietly, if at all; they have become matters of public policy, television drama, and political consequence.

"Pain suffering, and death lie at the very center of the Christian story. By contemporary standards, Jesus did not die a good death… "

The very fact that euthanasia and assisted suicide have emerged as issues of public debate suggests a prior question: What is going on in the culture that these issues have assumed such prominence and urgency? How one answers this question determines, to some extent, how one assesses the morality of euthanasia and assisted suicide.

From one point of view, the problem is modern medicine. Its ability to keep people alive, even when their quality of life is very low, and to

John P. Burgess is an Associate for Theology in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He comments frequently on contemporary theological and ethical issues in such publications as The Christian Century, Soundings, and The Journal of Religion.

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prolong the process of dying, even when people are ready to die, is dehumanizing. Modern medicine seems to treat biological life as an absolute value, without respect to the values and concerns of the individual. It practices "biological idolatry."

When one describes the problem in this way, the possibility of euthanasia and assisted suicide appears humanizing, a contribution to personal autonomy.

From another point of view, however, the problem is the principle of personal autonomy itself. In modern culture, people demand the right to control their lives. Autonomy becomes an absolute value, and any other claims on people's lives, whether traditional, religious, or social are rejected. People want to determine matters of life and death for themselves, by themselves.

When one describes the problem this way, the possibility of euthanasia and assisted suicide appears further to undermine the legitimate claims of tradition, religion, or society, contributing to chaos and conflict-even to evil.

I want to explore euthanasia and assisted suicide from yet another angle: the view that euthanasia and assisted suicide have exploded into public consciousness because of contemporary personal and cultural attitudes towards pain, suffering, and death. In reflecting upon what constitutes a good life and a good death, many people have come to believe that one's dying is meaningless and that pain and suffering, whether physical or psychological, can become so great and so constant that life is no longer worth living.

From this perspective, euthanasia and assisted suicide are significant, not primarily as questions of public policy but as religious questions about the meaning of pain, suffering, and death. For Christians, therefore, the first question will be, What does life in Jesus Christ, the one who himself hung on a cross, enable and require? Identity in Christ leads, in turn, to questions of biblical authority and interpretation, of Christianity and culture, and of ethical decision making.

Pain, suffering, and death lie at the very center of the Christian story. By contemporary standards, Jesus did not die a good death. For us, the good death comes at the end of many years of fulfilled living; Jesus dies tragically young. For us, the good death is by way of natural causes; Jesus dies at the hands of people who hate him. For us, the good death is easy and painless; Jesus dies in excruciating pain.

Nonetheless, Jesus, in some sense, chooses this death. Arthur Droge and James Tabor have recently demonstrated the voluntary nature of Jesus' death (especially as depicted in John's Gospel). ¹ When the time is right, Jesus allows the authorities to arrest him. He offers no resistance; he attempts no escape. To the dismay of his disciples, he insists that he

¹ Arthur Droge and James Tabor, A Noble Death: Suicide and Martyrdom Among Christians and Jews in Antiquity, (San Francisco: Harper, 1992.)

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must go to Jerusalem, that he must fall into the hands of the authorities, and that he must die.

Jesus does not practice biological idolatry, but neither does he appeal to personal autonomy to Justify his way. He dies in obedience to the Father. He dies as a ransom for the sins of others.

As one reviews the circumstances of Jesus' death, one finds three elements that characterize his choice. First, Jesus experiences persecution. Second, he understands in prayer that his time has come and that God asks him to die at the hands of sinners. Third, he understands himself to die for a higher cause, for the very life of the world.

Droge and Tabor note that many early Christians, such as Ignatius of Antioch, understood discipleship in terms of these three elements. Like Jesus, they experienced persecution. They believed that God asked them, like Jesus, to die at the hands of sinners. They believed that, like Jesus, they died for a higher cause. In contrast to Jesus, however, they died more for their own sake than for others. Their experience of pain, suffering, and death united them with Christ in both his death and his resurrection and offered them immortality. Under these circumstances, how they came to their death-whether by the authorities searching them out, by voluntarily surrendering themselves, or by taking their own life-was less important than their witness to the faith.

"What distinguishes the contemporary issue of euthanasia and assisted suicide from the ancient issue of manyrdom is the social context. Modern medicine's ability to keep people alive is not a matter of persecution. "

But the church soon found itself embroiled in a dispute over martyrdom. The central question had to do with the divine call to martyrdom. Some, such as Ignatius of Antioch, Tertullian, and Origen, suggested either that martyrdom was the only way to immortality or that it was the best and surest way. Martyrdom became the norm for all Christians.

Others such as Clement of Alexandria and Augustine were concerned that Christians not become excessively fascinated with death. It was through the church and its sacraments that one participated in the death and resurrection of Christ. God did not call all to martyrdom; martyrs required a special sign, and Christians needed to discriminate between true martyrdom and false.

What distinguishes the contemporary issue of euthanasia and assisted suicide from the ancient issue of martyrdom is the social context. Modern medicine's ability to keep people alive is not a matter of persecution. People are not singled out on the basis of their faith nor do persons argue for euthanasia and assisted suicide on the grounds that they wish to participate more fully in the death and resurrection of Christ.

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The connection comes at another point. According to those who call for the possibility of euthanasia and assisted suicide, one can recognize that one's time has come, that life is not the highest value, and that one's choice of death can be ennobling.

Christians can examine this claim only insofar as they examine their identity in Jesus Christ. Christians know that, while the particulars of Christ's death do not wholly apply to their own, the central question has to do with the witness Christ calls them to make. As Christians encounter pain, suffering, and death in their own lives and in the lives of others, they need to examine the entire biblical witness, which culminates in Christ and the community's witness to him. The study of the Scriptures in their entirety, disciplined by Christ himself, helps Christians know who they are in him.

BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVES ON PAIN, SUFFERING, AND DEATH

The biblical materials reflect several different strands of thinking about pain, suffering, and death, and each stands in relation to the others. All reflect a communal setting: the people of God struggling to discern God's Word to them and to know how to respond to pain, suffering, and death.

Five such strands are identified below, along with some of the ways they have been developed theologically, both in Scripture and in later tradition. This list is not comprehensive. My aim is to establish that there are different strands, that they stand in some degree of tension with each other, and that Christian identity rests not in the selection of one or the other but in living faithfully in the tension that they create.

(1) Pain, Suffering, and Death as the Consequence of Human Sin

The Deuteronomistic materials of the Old Testament interpret personal and communal history in terms of obedience and disobedience, reward and punishment (See Deut. 30:15-20). Paul gives these themes a universalistic thrust. Pain, suffering, and death are consequences of the fall. He does not try to devise an individual calculus of suffering. All humanity inherits and continues the history of sin; all humanity suffers death.

The duty of the community is to proclaim the new life in Christ. Only Christ, the new Adam, can bring pain, suffering, and death to an end (see Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 15:20-22, 55-57; Heb. 2:10-18). In Christ, we need not fear pain, suffering, and death, for we belong to him (see Phil. 1:19-25).

(2) Pain, Suffering, and Death as Mystery

Job protests against the Deuteronomistic way of thinking. While his comforters assure him that his pain and suffering are God's just punishment, Job argues that he has not sinned. Even if he had, his pain and suffering are disproportionately great (See Job 10:1-7; 19:1-12). The Psalmist too protests against undeserved pain and suffering. He asserts his innocence and demands that God vindicate him (see Ps. 22, 44, 74).

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The Bible allows this protest against God's ways. Even Jesus can cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (See Mark 15:34). The cry of anguish can be a faithful act. In demanding that God listen, one expresses confidence that God is ultimately present in pain and suffering. The duty of the community is to stand with those who protest, to join its protest to theirs, and to bear their burden as its own, not to explain it away. ²

(3) Pain, Suffering, and Death as Redemptive

Like Job and the Psalmist, Isaiah, in the suffering servant songs, reflects the mystery of unmerited suffering. Yet, to Isaiah, this suffering has a purpose. One suffers on behalf of others (see Isa. 50:4-1 1; 52:13-53: 12).

The New Testament applies the suffering servant motif to Christ and his disciples (see Mt. 8:17; also, Phil. 2:5-8; 1 Pet. 2:21-25). Christ alone takes away the sins of the world (see John 1:29). Yet, Christians participate in his death and resurrection and manifest him to others (see 2 Cor. 4:7-12; also Rom. 6:5-1 1). They can bear others' sins and burdens in the hope that others will experience Christ's transforming love (see 1 Pet. 3:13-18).

"On the one hand, [the Christian community] will not fear death … and it will not seek to prolong one's dying… On the other hand, Christians will also remember that God may be acting redemptively in one's dying. . . . "

Moreover, as Paul reminds us, suffering can deepen faith. Trial and temptation become opportunities to learn endurance and to refine and purify faith (see 2 Cor. 12:1-10; 1 Pet. 4:1-2, 12-19). The duty of the community is to stand with those who suffer, to encourage their growth in faith, and to learn from their witness (see 1 Cor. 12:14-20).

(4) Pain, Suffering, and Death as the Enemy

The Scriptures recognize that forces of chaos and destruction resist God and the ordered creation. The human cry of anguish in the Old Testament is a faithful effort to activate God, to move God to action against evil. ³

² For recent representative theological expositions of this theme see Gilbert Meilander, I Want to Burden My Loved Ones," First Things (October, 1991), pp. 12-14; and Stanley Hauerwas, Naming the Silences: God, Medicine, and the Problem of Suffering (Grand Rapids: Eerdman, 1990).
³ For an excellent explication of this point see Jon Levenson, Creation and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988).

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For Christians, there is also another dimension: resistance. Through his death and resurrection, Christ has proclaimed victory over sin and death. The duty of the community is to join Christ in resisting the powers and principalities. Christians can work actively against those forces that inflict pain, suffering, and death (see Eph. 6:10-17).

In some cases, pain, suffering, and death can be the result of human injustice. Sin not only has universalistic implications; it can also hurt and destroy the innocent.

The prophets rail against human oppression and look forward to the day when the weak and powerless will enjoy peace and security (see Isa. 11:1-9; Amos 5:14-15, 21-24; Mic. 4:1-7; 6:8).

Political and liberation theologies have given these themes special prominence. ⁴ The duty of the community is to continue to raise this protest and to demand and seek social change. While the fulfillment of the kingdom lies in God's hand, Christians have the responsibility to seek justice here and now (see Mt. 5:6; 25:31-46; Eph. 6:10-12).

(5) Pain, Suffering, and Death as Natural Limits

One can understand pain, suffering, and death not only in relation to sin and redemption but also in relation to human finitude. Human life has appropriate limits. Having lived a full life, one can accept death. Similarly, one can accept pain and suffering as part of the human condition (See Ps. 90:3-10, 104:27-30; Eccl. 3:2-8).

"To eliminate all pain and suffering would be to eliminate life itself and the search for new life in Jesus Christ. "

In the Gospel of John, Jesus refuses to account for a man's blindness by his sin or that of his parents. Yet, this natural limitation does not have the last word. Jesus offers the man life that transcends these limits of pain, suffering, and death (see John 9:1-5).

The duty of the community is to teach us to accept life, even within these limits, as God's gift, to be present to those who suffer, to seek to relieve and ameliorate their condition, and to proclaim the Christ who gathers us into his everlasting body (see Rom. 12; Phil. 1:24-26).

LIVING IN FAITHFUL TENSION

The five strands described above do not easily lend themselves to systematization. Each speaks to a different strand of Christian experience. Yet, together they suggest Christians' distinctive identity in relation to euthanasia and assisted suicide and to the question of whether one can recognize that one's time has come.

⁴ See, for example, Dorothee Soelle, Suffering, (Fortress: Philadelphia, 1975).

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Generally, the debate does not center on a right to suicide in general nor on a supposed social interest in killing the old and decrepit, but on two other scenarios:

(a)that one is in the process of dying, and that medical interventions are merely postponing one's death rather than holding forth the possibility of recovery, or

(b)that one is experiencing deep pain and suffering (either physical or psychological), that medical interventions are insufficient to relieve this pain and suffering, and that one no longer finds life worth living

Without identifying and explicating all the complex interrelations among the five strands of biblical materials, it is, nonetheless, possible to suggest some of the ways Christians may go about approaching these two sets of issues. I will focus especially on the redemptive possibilities of pain, suffering, and death.

In relation to the first scenario, the Christian community will seek to live in a faithful tension. On the one hand, it will not fear death, and it will seek to be present to the dying. It will seek to make one's physical condition as comfortable as possible, and it will not seek to prolong one's dying. ⁵ It will proclaim the new life in Jesus Christ and entrust the dying to his care.

On the other hand, Christians will also remember that God may be acting redemptively in one's dying, either for one's own sake or on behalf of others. They will be reluctant to hasten death, especially so long as they find redemptive possibilities in one's dying. They will be open to the ways in which the dying may teach them about trust, love, and surrendering control to God. ⁶

For this reason. Christian tradition has drawn a distinction between active euthanasia and allowing a person to die. When death is imminent and medical intervention can only delay, but not reverse, the process, Christians can allow it to proceed. They can support the withholding and withdrawal of treatment--even, some would argue, of nutrition and hydration. The tradition has not, however, supported active euthanasia, that is, measures, such as lethal injection, that induce death. ⁷

Recently, some ethicists have criticized this distinction, arguing that both active euthanasia and withholding or withdrawing treatment have the same intent: to hasten death. ⁸ While the distinction is imperfect, those who would allow death without inducing it seek to respect the tension in which Christians must live: accepting death but not wishing to

⁵ A similar argument, though not from a strictly Christian perspective, appears in Leon R. Kass, "Why Doctors Must Not Kill," Commonweal (August 9,1991), pp. 472-476.
⁶ For a powerful exposition of these themes, see Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, Vol. III/4 (Edinburgh: T and T Clark, 1961), pp. 424-427; and Paul Ramsey, The Patient as Person: Explorations in Medical Ethics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970), pp. 125-164.
⁷ See Choosing Death: Active Euthanasia, Religion, and the Public Debate, edited by Ron Hamel (Philadelphia: Trinity Press international, 1991), especially chapter four, "Views of the Major Faith Traditions."
⁸ See James Rachels, "Active and Passive Euthanasia," New England Journal of Medicine (January 9, 1975), pp. 78-80.

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foreclose the redemptive possibilities that may yet occur in the twilight of life. Christians will want to weigh whether arguments for active euthanasia can respect this tension equally well. Those who argue for the distinction believe that it cannot. ⁹

As a subset of this first scenario, one may include the situation of those in a persistent vegetative state. When there is no hope of recovery, the tension lies between allowing death (for example, through withdrawal of nutrition and hydration) and remaining open to the redemptive possibilities that others can experience in providing care. Those who define death only in terms of one's inability to communicate relinquish this tension. As long as the heart continues to beat and the lungs continue to breathe, one is, in some sense, alive, and others are capable of some kind of loving relationship. ¹⁰

In relation to the second scenario (unrelieved pain and suffering), Christians will live also in a faithful tension. They will protest and act against pain and suffering, yet they will also remain open to their redemptive possibilities.

Pain and suffering are primarily subjective conditions. One cannot measure them objectively. The same physical condition elicits different responses from different patients. Even as doctors continue to make strides in pain management, they increasingly recognize that pain and suffering are also matters of meaning. ¹¹

Job cries out against the apparent meaninglessness of pain and suffering. Yet, this very cry is an attempt to give meaning to pain and suffering. His protest becomes an act of faith. When Christians encounter unrelieved pain and suffering, they too protest. Pain and suffering do not require an explanation but, rather, the community's presence and solidarity. Christians seek to bear one another's burdens and to share in each other's pain and suffering. ¹²

Christians will also seek to mitigate pain and suffering and to eliminate conditions that contribute to them. Unjust social structures, for example, can make the life of the disabled more difficult, even to the point of apparent meaninglessness. Inadequate medical care can exacerbate one's

⁹ See Ramsey, The Patient as Person, pp. 125-164. For more recent statements, see Albert R. Jonsen, "Initiative 119: What Is at Stake?," Commonweal (August 9, 1991), pp. 466-468; and "Euthanasia: Final Exit, Final Excuse," First Things (December 1991), pp. 4-7. It is possible, however, to make a case for euthanasia and/or assisted suicide on the grounds that certain situations seem to offer no redemptive possibilities, at least not to the dying individual. See Gaspar L. Langella, "The Voluntary Active Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Question-Public Policy Considerations from a Reformed-Presbyterian Point of View," forthcoming in Seeking Death in America: The Challenges to Religious Belief and Practice (Chicago: Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith, and Ethics). Also, see Timothy E. Quill, "Death and Dignity: A Case of Individualized Decision Making," New England Journal of Medicine (March 7, 199 1), pp. 691-694.
¹⁰ For an interesting article on the inadequacy of "brain death" as a criterion, see Johannes Hoff and Jürgen in der Schmitten, "Tot?," Die Zeit (November 20, 1992), p. 16. Also, see Ramsey, The Patient as Person, p. 161.
¹¹ See, for example, Daniel Callahan, "'Aid in Dying': The Social Dimensions," Commonweal (August 9, 199 1), p. 478.
¹² See Meilander, "I Want to Burden" and Hauerwas, Naming the Silences.

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pain and suffering, as can dehumanizing forms of medical treatment. Yet, pain and suffering can also be redemptive; they can help one grow in faith. Christians will oppose injustice and oppression, but they will recognize that pain and suffering can also arise from within as a person struggles with mortality and sinfulness. To eliminate all pain and suffering would be to eliminate life itself and the search for new life in Jesus Christ.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide may represent ways in which some people protest their pain and suffering and struggle to recover meaning, even at the price of death. Christians will be able to understand this protest, and their first response will be compassion, not condemnation. ¹³ At the same time, they will not relinquish their vision of a better way. They will seek to be present to those who suffer, to work for medical and social conditions that benefit them, and to interpret the redemptive possibilities that sufferers find for themselves and demonstrate to others.

CHRISTIAN FAITH AND CULTURAL ATTITUDES

In testing whether one's time has come, the basic Christian principle will be neither biological idolatry nor personal autonomy but life in Jesus Christ as the Bible and community bear witness to it. How does this witness relate to the dominant attitudes of the culture in which North American Christians live?

"Christians can, nonetheless, make a theological affirmation: Christ, not euthanasia and assisted suicide, is the way in which the world can best come to terms with contingencies of pain, suffering, and death. "

The way one conceives of society shapes the way one thinks of pain, suffering, and death and of euthanasia and assisted suicide. A history of cultural attitudes toward suicide suggests the difference, for example, between social Darwinist and Durkheimian approaches. For the social Darwinist, competition and the survival of the fittest characterize social life. Suicide is a natural consequence; the weaker eliminate themselves. For Durkheim, society has the responsibility to integrate its members into its life. Suicide is primarily a social, not an individual failure.¹⁴

The celebration of individuality, plurality, and diversity in contemporary Western culture frames suicide in two other ways:

(a)The individual may be a victim. The necessity of finding one's own way through the world creates burdens that some people cannot bear.

¹³ See the comments in James M. Gustafson, Ethics from a Theocentric Perspective, Vol. II (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), p. 187.
¹⁴ See Droge and Tabor, A Noble Death, pp. 8-11.

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(b) In every case, the individual is an autonomous actor. One chooses one's own way through the world, and others must respect one's choices, also in relation to death.

Society has the responsibility to listen to victims and to create just social, political, and economic structures that enable them to become autonomous agents.

While one can dispute the adequacy and significance of such terms as individuality, plurality, and diversity, these themes, nonetheless, suggest a starting point for further reflection. The following analysis focuses on two particular aspects of such a cultural description: (1) the problem of contingency and (2) the primacy of personal experience.

(1) Contingency

No society can completely eliminate contingency. Pain, suffering, and death will continue to pose a profound challenge, even in a just society. In her study of primitive cultures, the anthropologist Mary Douglas argues that ritual seeks to overcome contingency. Through ritual, humans conceive an ideal order that helps mediate conflicting social values and forces. Douglas notes that death represents the ultimate challenge to the ritualistic system. Some primitive cultures have representative figures who choose their time of death. In this way, society tries to control the uncontrollable.

Douglas tells, for example, of one African tribe that engages in ritual murder of its aged holy men:

[T]he central theme … [is] the old man's voluntary choosing of the time, manner and place of his death. The old man himself asks for the death to be prepared for him, he asks for it from his people and on their behalf…. By his free, deliberate decision he robs death of the uncertainty of its time and place of coming. His own willing death, ritually framed by the grave itself, is a communal victory for all his people. ¹⁵

Douglas' observations raise a fascinating possibility. The current public interest in euthanasia and assisted suicide may reflect not simply an individual's desire for autonomy in the face of dehumanizing medicine but society's need to come to terms with contingency. Society has an interest in those who choose death because it seeks to defy death.

Christians worship a Christ who chose death so that others could have life. They do not have to conquer contingency on behalf of themselves or others; Christ has already conquered it. In him, Christians seek to live in total and complete love. In him, they seek to give themselves to others.

This self-emptying love defies prescription, but it is not simply spontaneous and relative. It requires formation. In the recent debate, Christians have disagreed about whether or not euthanasia and assisted suicide can

¹⁵ Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966), pp. 177-178.

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ever be acts of compassion. ¹⁶ Without fully resolving all the ambiguities of individual cases, Christians can nonetheless affirm that the commandment "thou shalt not kill" helps discipline their loving, faithful response to questions of pain, suffering, and death.

Moreover, this love distinguishes Christians from the world. It reflects distinctive habits that Christians nurture by virtue of their faith in Jesus Christ. Some would go so far as to see the church as an alternative community. ¹⁷ Again, without fully resolving all the problems of this position, Christians can, nonetheless, make a theological affirmation: Christ, not euthanasia and assisted suicide, is the way in which the world can best come to terms with contingencies of pain, suffering, and death.

(2) Personal Experience

When people conceive of society in terms of individuality, plurality, and diversity, one other issue comes to the fore: the primacy of personal experience. Individuals bear particular histories, tell particular stories. Moreover, these histories and stories undergo continual revision. Experience is flux. Not only is social consensus increasingly problematic, but the individual himself or herself appears to have no essential core. Each of us is a bundle of experiences. We can construct and deconstruct ourselves in any number of different and contradictory ways.

The discussion about experience, having become an academic industry. sometimes assumes a rather esoteric vocabulary. Nonetheless, the discussion is not entirely new. In the sixteenth century, the philosopher and essayist Michel de Montaigne explored such questions. Like people in the twentieth century, Montaigne found experience endlessly fascinating. Though he did not dismiss reason, he argued that experience privileges the passions. It is the moment, not enduring ideals, that most often determines us.

For Montaigne, the primacy of experience and the passions made a strong case for voluntary death:

The most voluntary death is the finest. Life depends upon the pleasure of others; death upon our own. We ought not to accommodate ourselves to our own humour in anything so much as this…. Living is slavery if the liberty of dying be wanting. ¹⁸

¹⁶ For an argument that euthanasia can be an act of compassion, see Mark Duntley, "Convenantal Ethics and Caring for the Dying," The Christian Century (December 4, 1991), pp. 1135-1137; for an argument that certain moral prohibitions can best embody Christian love, see Paul Ramsey, Deeds and Rules in Christian Ethics (Charles Scribner's Sons: New York, 1967), pp. 123-144. In The Patient as Person, Ramsey develops this idea to argue against euthanasia.
¹⁷ See, for example, Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, Resident Aliens: A Provocative Christian Assessment of Culture and Ministry for People Who Know That Something Is Wrong (Nashville: Abingdon, 1989).
¹⁸ Michel de Montaigne, The Essays, Great Books of the Western World 25 (Chicago: Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1952), p. 167 (emphasis added).

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Despite our temptation to believe that modern medicine has posed the question of a good death in a new way, Montaigne was well familiar with it:

The ordinary method of cure is carried on at the expense of life; they torment us with caustics, incisions, and amputation of limbs; they interdict aliment and exhaust our blood; one step further and we are cured indeed and effectually…. God gives us leave enough to go when He is pleased to reduce us to such a condition that to live is far worse than to die. ¹⁹

If personal experience is primary, not only is autonomy at stake but also pleasure. Montaigne seems to argue that life need not continue, once it brings us no more pleasure:

Pliny tells us of a certain Hyperborean nation where, by reason of the sweet temperature of the air, lives rarely ended but by the voluntary surrender of the inhabitants, who, being weary of and satiated with living, had the custom, at a very old age, after having made good cheer, to precipitate themselves into the sea from the top of a certain rock, assigned for that purpose. Pain and the fear of death seem to me the most excusable incitements.²⁰

Joseph Amato, a contemporary political philosopher, argues that modem Western culture assumes a right to pleasure. Pain and suffering are the greatest evils. The one who bears them has a privileged status. As a victim, he or she can demand political redress; pain and suffering become political problems.²¹ If Amato's analysis is correct, it is not surprising that euthanasia and assisted suicide have now become questions primarily of public policy, rather than of meaning.

The place of personal experience in Christian theology is a matter of great debate. Barthians tend to dismiss it, while liberation and feminist theologians make it their starting point. Again, without resolving all these differences, Christians can affirm that personal experience is never their sole source of authority. Experience helps open new insights into the Scriptures, but the Scriptures may also correct experience. Ultimate authority lies in the living Christ, to whom the Scriptures bear witness.

Moreover, experience, for Christians, is not merely flux. Christ endures, the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Christians believe that Christ, as ruler of history, gives their histories and stories meaning, even if they cannot fully grasp it and even if they disagree as to its content.

The living Christ calls forth a church that struggles to discern this meaning. At times, it looks and feels no different from the rest of the society. Yet, Christians believe that the plurality and diversity of the church reflect the richness of a body that is finally one. Experience is never simply personal. It requires mutual testing; it offers mutual insight.

¹⁹ Ibid.
²⁰ Ibid., p. 173.
²¹ Joseph Amato, Victim and Values: A History and a Theory of Suffering (New York: Praeger,1990).

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Again, without claiming too much for the church., Christians can nonetheless make a theological affirmation: Euthanasia and assisted suicide are primarily matters of meaning, not of public policy. Matters of pain, suffering , and death call forth our deepest convictions. We need more than strategies for guaranteeing our autonomy and pleasure; as Christians, we need an ongoing consideration of our life in Jesus Christ.

EUTHANASIA, ASSISTED SUICIDE, AND ETHICAL DECISIONS

While euthanasia and assisted suicide are primarily matters of meaning, Christians will also seek to relate them to issues of ethical decision making. The Christian life inevitably raises questions of both personal morality and public policy.

Ethics is not merely a matter of choices but of character. ²² Our identity as a certain kind of people determines both what issues we take to be important and how we frame them.

At one level, the issue is Christian ethical decision making. Ethical decision making assumes that humans exercise choices, and in relation to euthanasia and assisted suicide, this means deciding whether or not to choose to die. However, for Christians this choice is never ours alone. It requires a sense that one's time has come, and this sense requires testing against the tradition and within the community.

"Christians believe that Christ, as ruler of history, gives their histories and stories meaning, even if they cannot fully grasp it and even if they disagree as to its content. "

Moreover, as I have suggested, Christians will always find themselves in a kind of quandary about such matters. They will live in certain tensions. On the one hand, any absolutist position that seeks to dissolve these tensions is inadequate-no matter how attractive and regardless of whether it is politically left or right. On the other hand, Christian ethical decision making is never entirely relativistic. It occurs within the limits that the Scriptures themselves establish.

Ethical decision making also occurs in a communal context. Even plurality and diversity reflect a certain way of conceiving society and individuals' relation to it. For Christians, however, the cultural context is only one part of the communal context. Christ confronts culture and founds a community. The church always reflects its culture; yet, in Christ, the church also represents an alternative culture.

This communal context again sets up a tension that Christians cannot fully resolve, but within which they live. Christians cannot impose one

²² The work of Alisdair McIntyre and Stanley Hauerwas has been especially significant in explicating this point,

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particular way on each other. Yet, they will not make decisions in isolation. They need each other's insight and correction.

In relation to euthanasia and assisted suicide, Christians will seek to bear each other's burdens. They will be present to each other in their times of pain, suffering, and death. Yet, they will not simply seek to do what the suffering or dying one would want for himself or herself, but what is best for him or her and the entire community. Christians together will live in the tensions that Scripture and the church establish.

At a second level, the issue is how Christians will relate to those outside the community of faith in their ethical decision making. A tension similar to that within the community of faith arises. On the one hand, Christians will respect others' autonomy. God has not forced Christians to believe; neither will Christians force their views on non-Christians. On the other hand, Christians will seek to persuade others of the truth that they find in Christ; they will even seek to promote it in public policy.

Christians can understand the way euthanasia and assisted suicide represent a protest against the mystery of pain, suffering, and death. Yet, they believe there is a better way to protest. They will seek to be present to others in their times of pain, suffering, and death, and to engage society in reflection on the meaning of pain, suffering, and death.

This engagement of questions of meaning is perhaps the greatest contribution that Christians can make to a culture whose plurality and diversity sometimes seem to render it fragmented, even paralyzed. Today, there are few social spaces in which people can learn to develop and test convictions. The church needs to engage these issues of life and death not only for its own sake, but for the sake of the world. The church can frame its discussion in a way that invites others into the conversation, even if they do not thereby become Christian. The church can have confidence that its values have cultural significance, even in a non-Christian world. ²³

While this concern for meaning will be foremost, there will also be times in which Christians will seek more direct involvement in the formation of public policy, for public policy helps shape social attitudes. In relation to euthanasia and assisted suicide, perhaps the most serious example is the way in which their legalization could affect social attitudes towards the aged and disabled. Some aged and disabled persons are already apt to think of themselves as a social burden, and as unable to deal effectively with their pain and suffering. Society has made great strides in assisting and empowering these people. Christians will join others in questioning whether a public policy of euthanasia and assisted suicide would implicitly devalue these persons' lives. ²⁴

For Christians, euthanasia and assisted suicide are issues that raise basic theological questions. Of key importance is that the church renew

²³ For a good explication of this point, see Robin Lovin, "An Incomplete Politics," The Christian Century (November 4,1992), pp. 990-991.
²⁴ See Carol Gill, " 'Right to Die' Threatens Our Right to Live Safe and Free," Mainstream (March, 1992), pp. 32-36.

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its reflection on the meaning of pain, suffering, and death. The church's theology can make a distinctive contribution to both the public debate and the deepening of faith itself.

But I have also suggested that questions of pain, suffering, and death raise an even more fundamental theological question: that of identity in Jesus Christ. Moreover, I have argued that the question of identity inevitably leads to questions of biblical authority and interpretation, faith and culture, and ethical decision making. The Scriptures, even in the diversity of their materials, help identify distinctive ways of interpreting, and responding to, questions of pain, suffering, and death. They help nurture distinctive dispositions that inform the church's way of making concrete decisions.

"Christians can understand the way euthanasia and assisted suicide represent a protest…. Yet, they believe there is a better way to protest. "

A final word must be added. We have noted that the Scriptures ask Christians to live in a faithful tension. Such living requires and evokes deep resources of faith. But in the midst of pain, suffering, and death, one may also encounter limits to one's ability to see and nurture redemptive possibilities. Our compromises and failures do not negate God's redemptive claim on us. As Christians struggle with matters of life and death, they live in the hope of God's forgiveness and Christ's love, from which nothing can finally separate them.