Pastoral Response to the Suicidal Medical Patient: When is Life Truly not Worth Living? (IN: Clergy Response to Suicidal Persons and Their Family Members, edited by D C Clark)

Factors that seem crucial to effective ministry to the aging, the ill & the dying are discussed in the chapter. The range of patient responses to illness & dying, related suicide demgraphics, as well as a minister’s personal theological formulation about suicide are discussed. In reviewing personal responses to the dying, the author notes that in contemplating another’s vulnerability & approaching death, we necessarily confront our own.