Choose life

We're hearing a lot of discussion now about how to end life with dignity. To the extent that this can build support for families and individuals facing what the Bible terms "the last enemy," one can't help welcoming frankness and compassionate concern. Yet the range of the discussion is wide and can lead into extremes that are just as bad as the fearful, superstitious approaches to death which society has suffered from in the past. One recent book has apparently even had the undesirable effect of pulling people into its reasoning and showing them how to take their own lives, much to the sadness and anger of loved ones.

There is something basically wrong in befriending death— even when it would appear to end suffering or to be a doorway to life after death. This subtle wrong is something that needs "watching" and praying about. Society cannot draw vitality from increasingly intense materialism regarding death. Not only does this go against the grain of a deep-seated love of life but it would take us in the opposite direction from Christ Jesus' teaching.

Can we ever, for example, really discuss ending life without even more profound attention to what it means to be truly alive? As society works through the issues connected with "the right to die," the individual's commitment to life becomes central. No one can presume to instruct those who are in such difficult situations as to the appropriateness of medically prolonging a life. But we can certainly see the need to make every effort in our living to learn a great deal more about what life is, as God has actually made it to be.

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