LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

8 LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW IX
of a particular disease but also that she will continue to want to be put to
death until she dies naturally, requires a sobering amount of knowledge. It
should give pause, not just to those who would request VAE, but also to
those who would assist someone else out of this life. A suicide assistant
should want to be certain not only that the patient will die but also that she
will continue to want to die if she is allowed to die naturally. Negative
attitudes can also go into remission.
Why this anxiety about certainty Do we not base most of our decisions
in life upon probability The short answer to these questions is that the end
state of VAE is certain; indeed, VAE brings to an end in this life not only all
probabilities, but all possibilities as well. There are plenty of cases which
justify our worry, not the least of which is the case of Stephen Hawking. At
the age of twenty-one Hawking was told that he had ALS and that he would
not likely live more than two and one-half years. Today, at the age of fiftythree,
he is still doing cutting-edge research in cosmology. What if he had
taken the prognosis about his physical state as gospel, had assumed that his
initial depression over his disease would never abate, and had asked for and
received VAE or assistance in committing suicide 6
3. WHAT EFFECT WILL MERCY KILLING HAVE UPON THOSE WHO
CARRY OUT THE PRACTICE
The strongest motive for killing terminal patients is said to be mercy—
at least as it now stands. We should recognise, however, that our merciful
attitudes are dependent upon the high value that we still give to human life.
If we start killing those whom we previously thought were too valuable to
kill, will we not run the risk of devaluing human life and hence of eroding
our merciful sensibilities If physicians become desensitised to killing
people whom they would not now think of killing, what will this do to the
motivations of our chief caregivers If you were in a terminal state and
wanted to die a natural death, would you feel confident that your attending
physician had your interest in living at heart
Moreover, pain and suffering have spurred medical research and
promoted a noble dedication to the wounded and dying. Will the same sense
of urgency to find cures and the same desire to provide palliative care be
sustained if we take the easier way out For after all, it is easier simply to
remove the patient and the disease than to keep the patient and try to remove
the disease.
6 Stephen Hawking, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays (London:
Bantam Books, 1993) 22-23, 167; Stephen Hawking, with Gene Stone, A Reader’s
Companion [to] A Brief History of Time (London: Bantam, 1992) 49ff.