I am honored by a person who took a crack at all the questions. In the process of researching some stuff for a partial response on my part, I came across the following, which is such a good intro to a very important area, that I thought I would post it in full, so as not to forget it, and to open it up to discussion.
I am still not successful in making the e-mail thing attached to either the blog or the web site go, so, if you have written, please be patient. The web site and the blog are sort of a hobby thing, so I may be a little slow on follow through.
Here is the interesting article:
Life and death decisions
Schiavo case pushing choices at hospital bedside into church
By Melanie B. Smith
DAILY Religion Writer
msmith@decaturdaily.com · 340-2468
She lost her husband and two children when a drunk driver smashed their car in 1971. She said she could never have handled the grief without her Christian faith.
The Rev. Jeremy Lucas shows an Episcopal Church book on end-of-life issues, 'Faithful Living, Faithful Dying.' Lucas is rector of Athens' St. Timothy's Episcopal Church, which held a forum on issues brought up by the Schiavo case.
DAILY Photos by Gary Cosby Jr.
The Rev. Jeremy Lucas shows an Episcopal Church book on end-of-life issues, "Faithful Living, Faithful Dying." Lucas is rector of Athens' St. Timothy's Episcopal Church, which held a forum on issues brought up by the Schiavo case.
Glenda Richardson knows the sorrow of letting loved ones go. Her faith helped in a different way when her 83-year-old mother died, she said.
"Mother had faith that she was going to a heaven and that made it a lot easier for us to bear as well as her. We knew she was going to a better place, and she knew it, too."
Her parents had both signed an end-of-life directive called a living will, said Richardson, 67. Knowing her mother's wishes made it easier to turn down a feeding tube option after her mother could no longer eat, she said. "My mother chose not to prolong my father's life, and later we chose not to prolong her life just for the sake of a beating heart," Richardson said.
The Athens woman thinks the publicity about Terri Schiavo, whose family fought in courts about removing her feeding tube, was tragic. Such decisions should be private, Richardson said.
"I feel like there were two opinions there," she said. "I don't feel like either one of them was really wrong."
What to do?
Religious and political leaders alike weighed in on issues the Schiavo case created, creating headlines for months.
The Rev. Jeremy Lucas, rector of the Richardsons' church, St. Timothy's Episcopal in Athens, said the case prompted questions from parishioners about death and end-of-life issues.
The questions led to a Sunday evening class and a Wednesday forum. Lucas said most of the 15 people at the forum asked about how to do living wills or make sure their wishes are followed.
"Most everyone that I talked to at the forum and in the community felt very strongly they did not want to be hooked up (to machines) for heroic measures at the end of life. If it was their time to die, they wanted to die with a great amount of dignity," he said.
Lucas, who also is trained as an attorney and volunteers as a chaplain with Hospice of Limestone County, said it's not his role to tell people what to decide about loved ones' medical care.
He helps them look at issues involved, such as the ill person's quality of life. Most people wouldn't consider being kept alive by machines "any kind of life they would want to live," he said.
But the choices are hard, Lucas said. While in seminary, he helped families trying to decide whether to turn off ventilators or remove feeding tubes, he said.
"They are dealing with a grieving process, with emotions, and clinging to those they love."
Lucas believes there is no one correct Christian position on the complicated issues surrounding end-of-life care, and faithful Christians can disagree.
Varied opinions
Evangelical Christians are not of one mind on what they advise on end-of-life choices. Religious and political controversies around Schiavo's feeding tube elevated a complex ethical debate. Even the uniformly theologically conservative Southern Baptists differ.
"I know I've talked to some very theologically conservative medical providers who think it's OK to remove some feeding tubes," said David Smolin of Samford University in Birmingham.
Smolin, an expert in health care law, told Associated Baptist Press that to him a feeding tube is not medical treatment but "feeding and should never be withdrawn."
Dixon Sutherland of Stetson University in Florida, another Baptist school, said that a feeding tube is artificial. Sutherland, a religion professor, said it's not morally natural to keep someone alive by sustenance he wouldn't be able to give himself, according to ABP.
Other leaders as diverse as Pope John Paul II and the Rev. Jesse Jackson said that Schiavo's feeding tube should stay.
Schiavo died March 31 after her husband won the legal right to stop her nutrition and hydration.
James Richardson, a theology professor and director of a bioethics institute at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, said most Judeo-Christian groups hold that life in an important value "but not an absolute value."
Some hold that not using all possible means to sustain life demeans man, who is supposed to be God's image. Others argue the opposite. Some say belief in an afterlife means that the dying should be allowed to "move on, " while others worry about a drift toward euthanasia.
More help needed?
Sutherland said churches are doing members a disservice by not talking more about issues that come up regarding the end of life.
Most denominations do have publications or Web articles dealing with medical care decisions. Lucas recommends the book "Faithful Living, Faithful Dying: Anglican Reflections on End of Life Care."
"Part of a holy life is a holy death," said the priest.
What Bill Richardson, Glenda's second husband, likes about his decision to have a living will is the chance to make rational decisions. There is more to life, he said, than artificial systems pumping blood or doing other functions.
Mrs. Richardson saw how her parents' directives helped family members.
"It was . . . painful. Yet in their cases, I could see it as a blessing, and they were ready to die."
Mrs. Richardson, too, has a living will. The couple got their documents from a hospital.
What is a living will?
A living will is a type of advance medical directive. Another is a durable power of attorney for health care. Each state has its own documents for recording end-of-life decisions.
Experts suggest consulting a doctor, attorney, social worker or hospital about advance directives.
Religious resources
Religious resources on end of life decisions
include:
# Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, www.cbhd.org.
# A Catholic viewpoint, www.lifeissues.net
/writers/mis/mis_11endlifedecisions.html.
# "A Time to Life, A Time to Die" from www.erlc
.com, a Southern Baptist site. It claims some use living wills to promote euthanasia or doctor-assisted suicide. It suggests an alternative "Will to Live" document.
# "Faithful Care for Dying Persons" from The United Methodist Social Principles and Book of Resolutions 2004.
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