Posted on 10/20/2008 10:50:02 AM PDT by markomalley
European Protestants met in Vienna last week for a consultation to begin the process of drawing up a common position on euthanasia.
The Specialist Group on Ethics of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe and other Protestant experts on the subject of euthanasia are looking at existing position papers from CPCE member churches to help draw up the common statement.
Group coordinator, Dr Dieter Heidtmann said, “The positions of the churches are based on the same values and convictions, but on individual questions they arrive at different results.”
He added that Europe’s Protestant churches were “grappling intensively” with the tension between individual autonomy, the safeguarding of life, and support for the suffering.
The CPCE said it hoped its common statement would stimulate debate on the issue of euthanasia among the CPCE’s 105 member churches, as well as wider society.
The Specialist Group on Ethics expects to present the document to the CPCE Council when it meets in Oslo in January 2009.
The announcement of the consultation came as police in the UK continue their investigation into the death of a 23-year-old paralysed rugby player who travelled to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland last month to die.
The mother and father of Daniel James, who are believed to have been question by police, have defended their son’s suicide on 12 September, saying he was “not prepared to live what he felt was a second-class existence”.
The Government has launched an inquiry into assisted suicide, which remains illegal in the UK. The results of the inquiry are due to be published early 2009.
/sarc
I'm stunned this is even a topic of consideration. I guess I'm not as advanced as my European counterparts.
He added that Europe’s Protestant churches were “grappling intensively” with the tension between individual autonomy, the safeguarding of life, and support for the suffering."Individual autonomy" is liberalspeak for ignoring God's will, "safeguarding of life" is liberalspeak for until it's inconvenient, and "support for the suffering" is liberalspeak for assisted suicide.
What is there to “work on”?
There is ONLY ONE Christian position on euthanasia, it is a mortal sin and to pretend otherwise is an affront to God Himself.
The announcement of the consultation came as police in the UK continue their investigation into the death of a 23-year-old paralysed rugby player who travelled to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland last month to die.
The mother and father of Daniel James, who are believed to have been question by police, have defended their son’s suicide on 12 September, saying he was “not prepared to live what he felt was a second-class existence”.
So instead of working with him to understand that he could still have a "first-class existence" even if paralyzed, they ended his life.
I could rip of a long rant, but my feelings/ideas can be summed up in one word: aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrggggggg!
hmmm, dont recall any vatican papers, discussion, seminars, thoughts, ideas, roundtables, etc, on euthanasia.....
WONDER WHY....
You, me, and everyone else who gets in the way.
Perhaps I stretch too far, but I think this phrasing is an artifact of socialism. We must all be one class. There should be no class distinctions. No, not economic or political classes -- here, we're just talking about an equal class of humans. It's a Harrison Bergeron future, and if you have an injury, and cannot keep up with the rest of us here in the "first class" group, well, I guess you better "off" yourself.
A society which values morality, individualism, and Christianity can never go down that road. But a socialist society will race down that road and never look back.
The Europeans, as usual, are missing the point.
The next great wave of euthanasia is going to be done in the service of efficiency and the rationing of medical care. Now that the state is responsible for the cost of medical care, you can count on state and cultural institutions to pull out all the stops to convince seriously ill people that instead of consuming all of that state-paid medical care, they should take the "dignified", and relatively cost-effective, way out.
That will help fill up the pews! /s
“In the absence of this faith now, we govern by tenderness. It is a tenderness which, long since cut off from the person of Christ, is wrapped in theory. When tenderness is detached from the source of tenderness, its logical outcome is terror. It ends in forced labor camps and in the fumes of the gas chamber.”
Flannery O’Connor
I don’t think they believe in mortal sins. Probably not venials either. Come to think of it I doubt they believe in sin at all.
I guess we should apologize for holding the Nuremberg trials. Those guys were just in advance of their times...
How about “No!”? That’s a good position to take.
“You, me, and everyone else who gets in the way.”
And we need to inform people with FACTS by talking to everyone we know, calling talk shows, posting on FR, and/or writing editor’s letters.
Ummm, it is EVIL?
Or is that too simple?
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Most accurate and very well said. This stuff makes me wish I was born 100 to 150 years ago.
A pure example of false ecumenism. I sincerely hope the Catholic Church will never compromise her sacred beliefs on life issues in order to find a “lowest common denominator with ecclesial organizations that teach the moral heresy of the modern world.
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