This upcoming General Assembly is scheduled to consider producing a policy statement on euthanasia and assisted suicide.
In 1990 the Offices of Theology and Worship, at the direction of the G.A., assembled a task force to produce a study guide to help Presbyterians examine the theological issues underlying the public debate of euthanasia and assisted suicide. The study guide, called “In Life and in Death We Belong to God: Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide, and End-of-Life Issues,” was released in 1995.
Recently, Charles Wiley, staff associate for the Office of Theology and Worship, reported that fewer than fifteen of our 11,200 congregations have reported using the guide. Early on Presbyterians Pro-Life published a review of the guide. They found it gave credence to euthanasia and assisted suicide as means to escape pain and suffering and made little resort to historical Christian faith on the issues. The guide hints, too, that Jesus’ death might have been suicide. PPL noted that “…there is no serious effort in the study to organize and present biblical teaching or to examine the teaching of the Confessions on the subject.”
At the 1998 General Assembly an overture attempted to set denominational policy development into motion. Instead, the General Assembly urged our congregations to avail themselves of the resources available to discuss end-of-life issues “with reference to the church’s life of preaching, ministry, and care in ways that reflect our reformed and theological heritage.” The G.A. declined to consider policy development until at least 2001, the upcoming Assembly.
We already have too many denominational policies that do not reflect the thinking of most Presbyterians. If the response of the Office of Theology and Worship is an indicator, little discussion of pastoral care issues at the end of life has taken place in our congregations. Careful congregational study and discussion will be important as a requisite for policy development on these issues of life and death. Without plentiful input from local churches, a policy is more likely to reflect current cultural trends than the convictions of most Presbyterians.
This article first appeared in Theology Matters, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Jan/Feb 2001).
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