Thou Shalt Not Kill

A former Chief Educaation Office recently said to me: 'We were born helpless and incontinent and we die helpless and incontinent.'

The late Caardinal Heenan reminded us that 'Thou shalt not kill but need not strive officiously to keep alive'.

Our lust to be be as gods or as God is our Original Sin.  Our willingners to trust our Creator is our ultimate destiny.

We should be allowed to ask medics to cease to keep us artifically alive, or to give us painkillers whose purpose is to rtelieve pain but whose consequence will be our death.  That is why we need hospices run by faith communities whose palliative care  deeply respects this truth.  It is not  a reason to promote suicide, or worse still, murder disguiseed as suicide.