Wise Advocacy (IN: Dignity and Dying: a Christian Appraisal, edited by J F Kilner, A B Miller, and E D Pellegrino)

Over the last 2 decades several countries have been rapidly redefining the standard of care for patients with intractable suffering, as is evident in the current US debate over physician assisted suicide. This is exemplified by the outcomes of an increasing number of court decisions & published accounts of individuals who have made appeals to relieve their suffering by hastening death. Before developing a biblical model of care for intractable suffering, this analysis will summarize two such cases & demonstrate that the ethical foundation for the disposition of these 2 cases seriously overlook certain moral & existential issues that characterize the dilemma of intractable suffering.