How Should We Then Die? A Christian Response to Physician-Assisted Death
“My times are in thy hand.”
As more people accept the practice of physician-assisted death, Christians must decide whether to embrace or oppose it. Is it ethical for physicians to assist patients in hastening their own death? Should Christians who are facing death accept the offer of an assisted death?
In How Should We Then Die?, physician Ewan Goligher draws from general revelation and Scripture to persuade and equip Christians to oppose physician-assisted death. Proponents of euthanasia presume what it is like to be dead. But for Christians, death is not the end. Christ Jesus has destroyed death and brought life and immortality through the gospel.
Praise for How Should We Then Die?
Rarely has a book been needed as urgently as this one. Rarely has an author been better qualified to write it. I urge all Christians to prepare themselves to be able to provide a truly biblical response to one of the defining ethical issues of our day.
—Tim Challies, author of Seasons of Sorrow: The Pain of Loss and the Comfort of God
Possibly the most important ethical issue of our time, the practice of offering assisted dying makes an implicit claim about how we regard the value of human life. How Should We Then Die? will help laity to understand the legal, medical, ethical, and theological matters at stake in the debate.
—Kathryn Greene-McCreight, priest affiliate of Christ Church, New Haven; author of Darkness Is My Only Companion: A Christian Response to Mental Illness
Through clear, measured, and probing reflections, Dr. Goligher offers a diagnostic guide that helps us understand why euthanasia is deceptively attractive to those who are suffering or fear the loss of what they consider a life worth living. Combining Christian faith and reason, analysis and experience, his insights shine needed light on how we should think about death, dignity, and the value of every human life and how euthanasia medicalizes death and devalues life. His wise counsel reaffirms the need for faith, hope, and love to address our darkest fears and satisfy our deepest yearnings for comfort, both in life and in death.
—Lauris C. Kaldjian, MD, director, Program in Bioethics and Humanities, Richard M. Caplan Chair in Biomedical Ethics and Medical Humanities, and professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa
This is the kind of contribution to the debate that we need a great deal more of: a practicing physician who, having learned of life and death from his patients and his practice, has made use of widely read reflection to interpret them. The inherent contradictions of a practice based on despair appear with a clarity that perhaps no philosopher or theologian could give them.
—Oliver O’Donovan, professor emeritus of Christian ethics and practical theology, University of Edinburgh
Study along with this free discussion guide for individuals and groups looking to engage with this important ethical issue. Download for free.
- Why Not?
- Why Assisted Death?
- Assisted Death Devalues People
- Assisten Death Is an Act of Secular Faith
- Escape from Despair
- Entrusting Ourselves to a Faithful Creator
- Title: How Should We Then Die? A Christian Response to Physician-Assisted Death
- Author: Ewan C. Goligher
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Publication Date: 2024
- Pages: 160
- Format: Logos Digital, Paperback
- Trim Size: 5.25x8
- ISBN: 9781683597476
Ewan C. Goligher (MD, University of British Columbia; PhD, University of Toronto) is assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and has published over 100 papers and several book chapters. As a physician practicing critical-care medicine, he is regularly involved in helping patients and families navigate difficult decisions about medical care at the end of life.