PROPOSED RESOLUTION OF WITNESS:

“Legalization of Physician Aid in Dying”

Submitted by:  The Northern California Nevada Conference, by action of the Conference Annual Meeting, May, 2006.

Submitted to the Office of General Ministries, January 1, 2007.

SUMMARY OF PROPOSED RESOLUTION

This Resolution calls upon Local Churches to study and discuss the issues surrounding physician aid in dying, and encourages Local Churches, Conferences, the Office of General Ministries, and  Justice & Witness Ministries to advocate for state legislation to legalize physician aid in dying in limited circumstances.  Although The United Church of Christ has dealt with “The Rights and Responsibilities of Christians Regarding Human Death” at the General Synods in 1973 and 1991, physician aid in dying has not been addressed.

BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL, & ETHICAL RATIONALE; EXPECTED OUTCOME

Life is a precious gift from God. Life is sacred.

People of all faith communities agree with the affirmation of the sacredness of human life. “God created humanity in God’s own image....male and female God created them....And God saw everything that God had made, and behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:27,31)  “When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established; who are we that thou art mindful of us, and our children, that thou dost care for them? Yet thou hast made us little less than God, and dost crown us with glory and honor.” (Psalm 8:4-5)

God intends that created life be more than simply the existence of a human organism. The Gospel of John reports Jesus as saying, “I came that you might have life, life in all its fullness” (John 10:10 - Good News Bible).

But life is also a perishable gift.  Mortality is universal. “There is a time to be born and a time to die....” (Ecclesiastes 3:2) Death is a mystery. Faith sees it as a door into another room in God’s house. In the mystery of life and death, Christians take heart in words attributed to Jesus: “In my Parent’s house are many rooms.... I go to prepare a place for you...that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:2,3) “Because I live, you will live also.” (John 14:19)

“God is love.... We love because God first loved us.” (I John 4:8,19)  Jesus summarized the Law and the prophets: “You shall love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:30-31)

Compassion - love acted out - flows from the heart of God. Compassion, mercy, lovingkindness: we are called upon to live out these attributes of God with one another. It is the spirit in which the Samaritan ministered to the traveler left half-dead on the Jerusalem-Jericho road in Jesus’ parable. (Luke 10:25-37)

When mortal life on earth is inevitably ebbing, when death is imminent, what then?

All people are God’s precious children, from the beginning of life to life everlasting.

Wherever we go, whatever life brings, God is always there. God leads us, sustains us, is ever with us. (Psalm 139:7-12)

When the end of life on earth is near, compassion will offer the best possible palliative care and pain management by physicians, nurses, family members, hospice workers and others. Compassion will offer spiritual support from family members, clergy, church members and friends.

Through such compassion, most persons will experience death, usually with reluctance (for the will to live often remains strong) but peacefully - a transition to the next stage of eternal life.

However, some persons will experience end-of-life pain or other suffering to be excruciating at the end.

Many persons, because of their religious beliefs or for other reasons will nevertheless choose to draw the last possible breath no-matter-what. That choice will remain for every person who wants it.

Some others, when end-of-life suffering becomes unbearable, will decide that continued existence on earth without hope or meaning is no longer “life in all its fullness;” in fact, it is no longer tolerable. They may ask to have the choice of a peaceful release.

When the Northern California Nevada Conference considered these concerns, in May of 2006, only in Oregon did persons have the peace of mind of knowing that this legal choice is also available: to request and receive help in hastening their impending death. Oregon’s experience has demonstrated that this is a rare choice. The will to live is the greatest safeguard there is. However, thousands who will never use the law to hasten their own death are comforted to know that this choice is legally available if they should be among the few who need it and want it.

We are co-creators with God, given free will, the ability to make compassionate choices.

Justice and protection of the most powerless, and therefore most vulnerable persons in society are important concerns for Christians. Fears are often expressed that the very survival of these persons will be endangered by any physician aid in dying legislation. There is no evidence in seven years of reporting to the State of Oregon to substantiate any such fears. Safeguards insure that any request must be totally patient- driven. Failing a terminal diagnosis by two physicians, no person, including persons with chronic conditions or disabilities, are eligible for physician aid in dying.

In religious terms, this is an issue of free will and compassion.  This is not “suicide” as this pejorative word is generally construed.  Suicide is usually a tragic, isolated, often violent act of a depressed person whose life could go on with new hope.  Physician aid in dying is the choice for a carefully safeguarded, peaceful end of a life which is already in the process of ending. Current laws which prohibit physician aid in dying favor those who believe it is immoral. Legalization to allow physician aid in dying, in limited circumstances, would give equal (not preferential) treatment to those who believe physician aid in dying can be a principled moral choice.

Rabbi Joshua Stampfer has noted, “Life has to have meaning to continue.... If you find meaning, if there is hope, if there is purpose...you have got to keep going, no matter how terrible it is. However, individuals who choose to use the law to end their lives reach that decision when there is no purpose and no hope.... Most people will cling to hope until their last breath. Some decide differently. What is most important... is for people to know they have a choice, and to enable them to make the best end-of-life decisions for themselves....”  (Compassion in Dying)

Catholic moral theologian Daniel Maguire has written, “Life is the good thing and the precondition of all good things.  Any decision to end it in any context, for self or for another, must be slow, deliberate, and reverential.  But the life that is good also bears the mark of the tragic.  There are times when the ending of life is the best that life offers”  (Death by Choice)

Episcopal BishopJohn Shelby Spong asserts, “We are no longer simply children leaning on the Deity with no responsibility except to embrace our destiny....

“If I have a medically confirmed incurable disease, and can bear the pain of that sickness only by being placed into a kind of twilight zone, where I neither recognize the sweet smile of my wife nor respond to the touch of her hand, do I not have the ethical right to end my life with medical assistance? Can dedicated Christians step into this process and say we have now reached the point in human development where we have not just the right, but the moral obligation, to share life-and-death decisions with God?....

“The decision-making power should reside with the individual, who alone is to be granted the legal right to determine how and when his or her life is to come to an end. That is how we will surround death with the dignity that this ancient friend deserves.” (“Assisted Suicide:  Christian Choice and a New Freedom”)

As stated during a recent mediated dialogue on physician aid in dying,  “Human suffering does not admit of easy or risk-free solutions.  It poses pressing and awesome challenges to efforts to alleviate it. Suffering is a multifaceted reality and addressing it is conceptually and existentially more complex than simply addressing pain.  Suffering may pose such a horrifying burden on the one suffering that for that person death may seem a higher value than the maintenance of life.

“Physician aid in dying may thus be a necessary ‘last resort’ measure to address the suffering of another, not in place of but as one option within an array of needed palliative measures.”

TEXT OF RESOLUTION

WHEREAS life is both a sacred and perishable gift from God

AND WHEREAS God intends that created life be more than simply the existence of a human organism (John 10:10);

AND WHEREAS faith sees death as a door into another room in God's house (John 14:2,3,19);

AND WHEREAS compassion - love acted out- flows from the heart of God to and through God's children (Luke 10:25-37);

AND WHEREAS from the beginning of our lives to life everlasting, God leads us, sustains us and is always with us (Psalm 139:7-12);

AND WHEREAS medical technology, pain management and palliative care have made great advances, yet some persons still face intolerable suffering during a terminal illness;

AND WHEREAS the Ninth General Synod and the Eighteenth General Synod  both passed end-of-life choice resolutions entitled "Rights and Responsibilities of Christians Regarding Human Death," which did not address the issue of physician aid in dying;

AND WHEREAS other faith communities have addressed end-of-life issues over the past 20 years;

AND WHEREAS Oregon in 1997 passed a "Death with Dignity Act" permitting a mentally capable, dying adult to request and receive from a physician a prescription to hasten death if the patient finds his or her suffering to be unbearable, but only if strict and specific safeguards are followed;

AND WHEREAS in Oregon since 1997 there have been no incidents of abuse of this law, and its use has been a rare choice, since the will to live is the greatest safeguard there is,  yet thousands who will never use the law to hasten their own death are comforted to know that this choice is legally available if they should be among the few who need it and choose it;

AND WHEREAS the Supreme Court has affirmed Oregon's right to have such a law;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Twenty-sixth General Synod:

Affirms that on the grounds of compassion and choice, if strict safeguards to prevent abuse are followed, a terminally ill, mentally competent adult should have a legal right to request and receive medication from a willing physician to hasten death if the patient finds his or her suffering to be unbearable;

Calls uponThe General Minister and President to ask the Conferences and Local Churches to study and reflect upon the issues surrounding physician aid in dying, to communicate to our ecumenical partners and other faith communities, to the electronic and print media, and to legislators and other political leaders the content of this resolution.

Calls upon Justice and Witness Ministries to make available to Local Churches and

Conference/Association personnel, resources on the ethical dimensions of          physician aid in dying and strategies for legislative advocacy, and to consult with the General Minister and President in regard to legislative leaders to be contacted

Encourages Conferences and Local Churches to advocate for state legislation to allow physician aid in dying, in circumstances where compassion and ethics prevail.

FUNDING AND IMPLEMENTATION

Funding for communication from the General Minister and President will be made in accord with the overall mandates of the Office of General Ministries and the funds available to the Office of General Ministries.