on Euthanasia

Catholic News published an edited version on my take on Euthanasia... You can read the longer version below

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For the longest time, people of goodwill have seen and accompanied their loved ones in the final stages of their very often painful process of dying. Why then, in our age of pain control and quality hospice care is there a sudden clamor for euthanasia?

At the heart of the movement to legalise euthanasia lies a notion that a human being has absolute dominion over his own life and he can do of it as he pleases, including opting for his own death in order to increase his sum total of happiness. The cry “who are you to prevent me from killing myself if I so chose” is never far away.

Yet do we as human beings have absolute dominion over our own lives? No we do not. We came into the world not on our own accord. If we believe in God, we recognize that our lives are His gift to us. If we do not believe in God, the fact still remains that we did not create ourselves, that we are linked with the rest of humanity in a state of solidarity and interdependence and our lives remain a mystery.

The campaign for euthanasia is in the final analysis a campaign for the choice to make one final defiant act of self-assertion flung into the face of the abyss.

Not to opt for euthanasia on the other hand is to experience a painful but potentially graced filled encounter with death. Life was and remains a gift. My exit from this world is but my acceptance of my mortality and my frail nature. And I am grateful to everybody who continued to show me care and love even when I am gravely ill.

And if I am a believer; I am placing myself into the hands of my Creator who in his providence will lead me home at the right time to a better place.