Life's Living toward Dying: A Theological and Medical-Ethical Study

In the past several years our culture's long-standing prohibitions against suicide and euthanasia have been seriously challenged. A great tidal change in morality and law may be occurring as the courts seem to be creating a new right - the individual's right to die. In the fall of 1994 the people of Oregon voted to legalize physician-assisted suicide; Michigan's courts continue to acquit Dr. Jack Kevorkian for his involvement in the deaths of more than two dozen patients; and in several states federal appeals courts have struck down statutes that prohibited physician-assisted suicide. In Life's Living toward Dying Vigen Guroian responds to this challenge. He discusses society's moral confusion over the meaning of death and gives a Christian alternative for care of the dying that is consistent with the strong value that the Christian church has ascribed to human life.