Chapter
Autonomy and the ‘Right to Die’ (IN: Dignity and Dying: a Christian Appraisal, edited by J F Kilner, A B Miller and E D Pellegrino)
de S Cameron N M
Are we our own? And, if we are, can such a presumption translate into public policy? The autonomy argument, thus projected, proves profoundly self-destructive. Yet, if we are not our own, if we were created in the imago Dei, & if we were bought with a price, the right to die like the right to live is retained by the God who made & who redeemed. If we recall who we are, & the logic which alone can unravel the notions of rights themselves, the major premise of the suicidal syllogism is shown to be as false as its promise.