My Hope Is Built …: Christian Perspectives on Decisions at the End of Life
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If what Dr. Kevorkian says is true, then, he had a select group of people who wereout of the religious mainstream. He made these cases sound as if the patient made a free and rational decfision, but we have no evidence that there had been any psychiatric evaluation assessing the degree of depression, guilt, anxiety, or other manifestation of mental stress or illness. Is Kevorkian a strange blip on the timeline of history or is the "need" he filled a result of broad-based societal failure to inform and care for those with chronic life-threatening diseases? Incredibly, Janet Atkins was not truly "suffering" from what was diagnosed as Alzheimer's disease and had not lost her "persona at the time of her death. How was this diagnosis of a lethal disease made? How much of what she did was related to misinformation, exaggerated reaction or underlying depression, we will never know.
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About the Book
With medical advances, people are living longer than ever before, and in many cases, with a higher quality of life for much of that time. Despite the potential of a long, healthy life, however, many individuals find themselves facing end-of-life issues they never anticipated. And to Christians, those decisions may be especially difficult.
In My Hope Is Built …: Christian Perspectives on Decisions at the End of Life, author F. Walton Avery examines critical writings about available options for those facing end-of-life decisions for themselves or for someone they love. He looks at Christian responses to vital questions that come at the end of life. Avery looks closely at whether the prohibition against suicide or assisted death can be suspended and, in the name of Christian faith, the suffering individual be permitted to commit suicide or be party to assisted death.
Regardless of circumstances, making end-of-life decisions are likely to be difficult. My Hope Is Built …: Christian Perspectives on Decisions at the End of Life can help one make those decisions in light of their Christian beliefs.
About the Author
A retired doctor, F. Walton Avery earned bachelor’s and medical degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master of theological studies degree from Duke Divinity School at Durham. He and his wife, Laura, have one child and live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He also has two adult children.