Rev. KEVIN FLYNN

is an Anglican priest and director of the Anglican studies program at Saint Paul University.

Your question as posed suggests two alternatives, which I entirely reject. No, God does not want us to suffer. Jesus himself takes aim at notions of God as a capricious tyrant: “Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:10-11).

Euthanasia, by which I assume you mean doctor-assisted suicide, is not the only alternative to the suffering that can accompany our dying.

As the Victorian poet Arthur Clough put it, “Thou shalt not kill; but need’st not strive officiously to keep alive.” In other words, it is appropriate to refuse treatments that would prolong suffering or prolong the process of dying.

Suffering is more than a physical experience. The depression and fear that some dying people experience are forms of suffering that are spiritual, rather than physical issues.

The Christian practice of visiting the sick is aimed directly at ensuring that the sick person not feel isolated from the rest of the community and thereby fall into alienation and despair.

The spiritual suffering that comes from having to face our limits and inevitable death can be borne, made sense of, and integrated meaningfully into our lives when we have a community that surrounds and supports us.

Clearly, not everyone will regard life as a gift as Christians do. Anyone, however, can recognize the dangerous shift in relations between doctors and patients should assisted suicide be legalized, not to mention the further pressure this can put on people who may already fear they are a burden to others.