1. Engaging the Encore Generation
Engaging Christian Ethics in a Pro-Death Culture
Presenter: Dr. Robert C. Kurka
Lincoln Christian University

2. A “Pro-Death” Culture
“This situation, with its lights and shadows, ought to make us all fully aware that we are facing an enormous clash between good and evil, death and life, the ‘culture of death’ and the ‘culture of life.’ We find ourselves not only ‘faced with’ but necessarily ‘in the midst of’ this conflict…”
--John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae 28
(1995)

3. “It is possible to speak in a sense of a war of the powerful against the weak. A life that would require greater acceptance, love, and care is considered useless or held to be an intolerable burden and is therefore rejected in one way or another. A person who, because of illness, handicap, or more simply, just by existing, compromises the well-being or lifestyle of those who are more favored tends to be looked upon as an enemy to be resisted or eliminated.” (EV 12)

4. Brittany Maynard (1984-2014): A Commentary on our 21st Century “Culture of Death”…

5. “I would not tell anyone else that he or she should choose death with dignity. The question is: Who has the right to tell me that I don’t deserve this choice?...Why should anyone have the right to make that choice for me?”
--Brittany Maynard to CNN (emphases, mine)

6. What John Paul feared, Brittany embraced…
IS IT OUR RIGHT TO DIE?

7. The Answer from Contemporary Bioethics…
Definition: Bioethics is the process of “distinguishing between what we should pursue and what we shouldn’t pursue in matters of life and health.”
--John F. Kilner and C. Ben Mitchell, Does God Need Our Help? Assisted Suicide and Other Challenges in Bioethics (xxii)

8. “The Georgetown Mantra”
Autonomy: “respecting the decision making capacities of autonomous persons”
Beneficence: “providing benefits and balancing benefits against risks and costs”
Nonmaleficence: “avoiding the causation of harm”
Justice: “distributing benefits, risks, and costs fairly”
-Tom Beauchamp and James Childress, Principles of Bioethics (38)

9. These Four Principles seem fairly positive until one realizes the ethical relativism that governs our society …who (John Paul or Brittany) defines what they mean?
In our Western Society, today, the governing WORLDVIEW in healthcare is:
SECULARISM
“Secularism is a principle that involves two basic propositions. The first is the strict separation of the state from religious institutions. The second is that people of different religions and beliefs are equal before the law.”
Source: National Secular Society:

10. “””Priva Secularism and Faith
“Secular (non-spiritual) Reality”--Public
“Spiritual Reality”--Private

11. …and Secularism is “supported” by several “Hidden Worldviews”:
INDIVIDUALISM
* I am the center of the universe
* I am the primary reality in the universe
* My end justifies my means
* I am my own moral conscience
* Freedom and fulfillment are my right
* Performance defines our value
[adapted from S. Wilkens and M. Sanford, Hidden Worldviews, IVP, 2009]

12. MORAL RELATIVISM
* Moral beliefs cannot be directly observed or measured scientifically and therefore are matters of personal and/or community opinion. No one “opinion” should be seen as “more right” than another.

13. SCIENTIFIC NATURALISM
“Scientific naturalism or materialism holds that all that exists is physical and can be reduced to its elemental material composition…If nothing exists except the material, there are no nonphysical realities such as God or souls.” (Hidden Worldviews, )

14. PRAGMATISM
* “Philosophic movement that includes those who claim that an ideology or proposition is true if it works satisfactorily, that the meaning of a proposition is to be found in the practical consequences of accepting it, and that unpractical ideas are to be rejected.”
--Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

15. --John F. Kilner, Life On the Line, (40)
…and Secularism fosters a predominant ethical system called UTILITARIANISM
Utilitarianism is the ethical approach that “identifies the right decision as that which will produce the greatest ‘utility’ (good) for the greatest number of people under the circumstances.”
--John F. Kilner, Life On the Line, (40)
Utilitarianism is in large part responsible for the “Pro-Death” Culture we live in today

16. A Utilitarian Perspective on Aging and Death
“But here is a simple truth that many of us seem to resist: living too long is also a loss. It renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but it is nonetheless deprived. It robs us of our creativity and ability to work, society, the world. It transforms how people experience us, relate to us, and most important, remember us. We are no longer remembered as vibrant and engaged but as feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic.”
--Ezekiel Emanuel (major architect of ACA), “Why I Hope to Die at 75,”The Atlantic (October, 2014)

17. Peter Singer: The “Consummate Utilitarian”
Australian bioethicist --De Camp Professor of Bioethics at at Princeton University

18. On Human Value, and Beginning/End of Life: Some Singer Quotes
“I am not comfortable with any invasive research on chimps. And I think there are other ways. I would say, What about getting the consent of relatives of people in vegetative states?” (1999 Psychology Today interview)
“You have to ask yourself does a baby have a right to life as its born? Or does it come into existence gradually? Of course its gradual…” (Same PT interview)
(On “inconsistently” choosing to spend 1000’s of dollars on his aged mother with Alzheimer’s): “Suppose, however, that it was crystal clear that the money could do more good elsewhere then I would be wrong in spending on my mother…If my money could do more good if donated to an organization that helps people in much greater need than we are. I freely admit to not doing all that I should; but I could do it…”

19. Is this ethical theory justifiable from “The Georgetown Mantra”
Is this ethical theory justifiable from “The Georgetown Mantra”? Ask Tom Beauchamp…
“Many human beings lack properties of personhood or are less than full persons, they are thereby rendered equal or inferior in moral standing to nonhumans. If this conclusion is defensible, we will need to rethink our traditional view that these unlucky humans cannot be treated in the ways we treat relevantly similar nonhumans.”-- “The Failure of Theories of Personhood,” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 9: 4 (December 1999), emphases mine

20. On the other hand, there are Transhumanists who will do everything to preserve “youth” and prevent and technologically defeat Death
Transhumanism: “An international cultural and intellectual movement with the eventual goal of transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capabilities.” --Wikipedia

21. Leading Transhumanist “architect,” Nick Bostrom…
“Transhumanism does not espouse the suicidal view that we should replace ourselves with whatever ‘more advanced’ life form we might be able to create. The idea, rather, is that humanity can develop to new levels. Ideally, existing human beings would have the opportunity to continue to grow into ‘posthuman’ beings, in much the same way as infants already grow into adults. Whatever it is we value about humanity should be preserved, cultivated, and expanded.” (IEET Interview emphases, mine))

22. Secularism requires a stiff price… a wise man once said:
“What we call Man’s power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.”
“For the power of Man to make himself what he pleases means, as we have seen, the power of some men to make other men what they please.”
“But the man-moulders of the new age will be armed with the powers of an omnicompetent state and an irresistible scientific technique: we shall get at last a race of conditioners who can really cut out all posterity in what shape they please.”
--C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (55, )

23. “Controllers” or Creator: The Case for a Christian Ethic of LIFE
Biblical Worldview: Grand Narrative(Genesis 1-Revelation 22)
GOD Creation Fall  Redemption Consummation
Jesus (1st Ad.) Jesus (2nd Ad.)

24. Biblical Worldview: Core Beliefs
God--triune, pre-existent, transcendent, immanent, good, personal
Creation--created good, fallen but redeemable
Humanity--all persons --at any stage of life--are imago dei
Human Problem: sin
Salvation: God’s Gracious Redemption in Christ for all humans/creation
Knowledge--God reveals himself in world and Word
Ethics--transcendent, revealed by God (his character)
History:--linear, purposeful, guided by Providence
Death--end of physical existence, future resurrection of body
Life’s Purpose: Serve and glorify God

25. A Christian Worldview-shaped “Bioethics” [adapted from J
A Christian Worldview-shaped “Bioethics” [adapted from J. Kilner, Life on the Line]
God-centered TRIUNE GOD
Reality-Bounded Special Revelation
Love-Impelled (Bible)
General Revelation
birth death

26. An Incarnational Demonstration of a Christian Bioethics: Raising of Lazarus ( John 11:1-44)
“Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” --v.6

27. John 11 “Boethically-exegeted”…
1. God-centered--the Triune God (revealed in Jesus Christ) is the “starting place” in our theory/practice of a Christian ethic--not human autonomy ( v. 41). It is his universe (especially human creation) not ours. “Early” or “Unnecessary Death” should be opposed.
2. Reality-bounded--Death is both opposed--and exposed (not the final reality--vv.11-13). Death is a result of the Fall, not of Creation. However, even Lazarus’ resurrection was temporary; he would physically die, again. Death will not be eradicated until the consummation of the world (v.24; also Rev. 20:14; 21:4)
3. Love-impelled--Healing is prompted by genuine, selfless love, not by grandiose visions of power and technological control ( vv.33-35)--an ethics of “virtue” more than duty (deontological)

28. A “Pro-Life” Set of Values
Life is God’s gift not a human right--Gen. 1:27-20; Ex. 22:13; Job 33:3; Ps 139:13
All human life has Dignity--from inception to death (and beyond the grave)-Gen. 1:27; Ex. 23:12; John 3:16
Suffering, Pain and Death are realities of this earthly existence--Gen. 2:17; 3:
The major enemy of humanity is not Death but Sin. Ultimately, “Life” is found in Jesus Christ--Rom. 3:23; 6:23. “Dying well” has profound spiritual implications
Bible presents two key characteristics of the Elderly: Wisdom and Weakness --Job 12:12; 15:10; Eccles. 12:2-5; Ps. 71:9, 18
Bible charges God’s People to care (with dignity) for humanity’s most vulnerable: Children (Women), Sick, Poor, Elderly --and Dying--are opportunities and privileges to demonstrate the created-value of all human life and develop caring human community (agape)--Pss. 10:4; 35:10; 140:12; Acts 20:35; 1 Cor. 8:9-12; 2 Cor. 12:9-10 (God’s nature); Prov. 31:9-9; 1 Thess. 5:14; Jas. 1:27; 1 Pet. 3:7 (God’s People).

29. Engaging a “Culture of Death” with a Pro-Life Agenda: FOUR CHURCH STRATEGIES
1. Discipleship--educate God’s People about their own belief and how it challenges the dominant cultural models (e.g., Secularism). Provide biblically-sound information on advanced directives, hospice, and other health-related issues
2. Community--engage in concrete expressions of love and care for the aged, by fostering positive and communal relationships among the patient, family, and caregivers
3. Apologetics (Pre-evangelism)--articulate and expose the inconsistencies and “de-humanizing” consequences of non-Christian ethical models--in a respectful and charitable manner
4. Political Reform--support life-affirming legislation and political action (this is listed last because it is not the key point of engagement but one that emerges as a result of the afore-mentioned strategies)

30. “Hospice”: A Product of a Christian Worldview
Founder: Dame Cicely Saunders ( ), a devout Anglican nurse, who worked in a London hospital following WWII
Befriended a dying Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, David Tasma , a relationship that gave her a “divine call” to care for dying people
Went to medical school at age 33, and focused her medical practice on helping dying people and alleviating pain
Founded St. Christopher’s Hospice in London in In 1971, sent a team to establish first US hospice in New Haven, CT
Since 1987, hospice has been a certified medical specialty in Britain

31. A “Hospice Model” Reflecting a Pro-life Christian (Biblical) Worldview
Life-Valuing Hospice which neither hastens or delays death
Natural Life/Natural Death
*Provides food, fluids, UNTIL the patient’s body begins to shut down
*Provides basic care, including oral care
* Provides pain medications in sufficient doses to make the patient comfortable
God-centered  Reality-bounded  Love-impelled
Source: Safe Haven Hospice whose mission is “To make the end of life comfortable and meaningful”

32. A Life Affirmed in Death… Gary J
A Life Affirmed in Death… Gary J. Kurka ( ) “Then I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.’” --Revelation 14:13