Why would we concern ourselves with which comes first, the death of the body or the departure of the soul?
This question becomes important when we desire vital organs for transplantation. Vital organs must come from bodies that are alive. See blog posting Vital Organ Donation – The Most Important Question. So far, our society generally agrees that a person must be dead for vital organs to be removed. For vital organ donation to be right there needs to be a way for a person to be dead, while their body is still alive.… Read the rest
One aspect of Invitro Fertilization that raises some questions is the process of selecting which eggs and subsequently selecting which growing embryos are given the opportunity to be placed in the mothers uterus so that they might continue to grow.
A biblical precept is that God, in His wisdom chooses to use the weak to confound those who appear strong. God brings strength out of weakness. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, it says,
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
By a living will I am referring to instructions written out by a person to give direction to others about health care decisions in the event the person becomes unable to speak for themselves.
Writing in a way that will clearly be interpreted by others, as you intend your instructions to be interpreted, can be a problem. Consider the following exert from a living will.
If I become incapable of expressing my wishes and my physicians declare me to have a condition from which I will not recover, then I wish to have all life prolonging procedures withheld, including, but not limited to, artificial nutrition and hydration, and life support including intubation and ventilation.
Recently I was asked to comment on health care surrogate forms and power of attorney for health. For these I use the term living wills. These are directives that a person records to be used in the event that they become unable to communicate their wishes with respect to medical decision making. This seems fairly simple. Don’t we know how we would want to be treated? Some might say, “I never want to live, unable to communicate, in a nursing home” and record in their directives that they are never to be placed in a nursing home.. … Read the rest
Worldview and Ethical Issues from a Biblical Perspective
