A Canadian liturgy of death?

The government of Canada is currently debating whether to extend the right to physician-assisted suicide to people with mental disorders. In the face of this, Christians must protest. We might instruct people about the holiness and dignity inherent in suffering. We might proclaim that Christ Himself was acquainted with our grief. The Anglican Church of Canada, however, has done something different. In June, it put forth a trial liturgy to consecrate medical suicide.

Since its first legalization only a decade ago, Canada’s “Medical Assistance in Dying” has shockingly come to account for just over 5% of all Canadian deaths. Certain interest groups feel that even that number is too low. They are now arguing that even mental illness should qualify for MAID, and Canadian courts are now forcing the issue. To its credit, a special joint committee of Parliament is pushing back. Though certainly backed into an abysmal corner, there is at least debate left to be had.

And so, it’s especially disappointing that the Anglican Church of Canada would choose this time to test out a liturgy that is both blasphemous and banal. It proclaims the room of death to be “sacred” while offering such insipid lines as “this is a time of stillness, the breathing space of preparation.” Never warning against the danger of violating the Sixth Commandment and neglecting to set forth Christ as crucified (the Apostles’ Creed is optional!), this counterfeit pastoral office actually demonstrates the triumph of contemporary cultural values over historic Christian doctrine.

Carl Trueman has explained the influence of Philip Rieff and the “triumph of the therapeutic” in several of his recent books, particularly The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self and The Desecration of Man. Trueman explains that the language of “therapy,” along with human flourishing and wellness, has taken the place of more conventional categories of morality and even holiness. In The Desecration of Man, Trueman explicitly connects this to cases of assisted suicide. Ironically, the therapeutic no longer needs to even bring actual health. Its language can be used in the service of death, so long as perceived pain and harm are eliminated and the “dignity” of the human is thought to be preserved.

The Anglican Church of Canada formally denies that it grounds human dignity in “the autonomy of human decision-making alone.” They believe that the decision-making has to be made with some awareness of God. They also “decry systems that make MAiD an option where it ought not to be—where there is poor access to proper health care, for example.” But notice what they don’t mention. There is no statement that God has forbidden such a procedure. And they don’t even have the decency to mention the ongoing debate over mental illness. Instead, they add the truly astounding line, “rather than being a potentially faithful, conscience-led turn towards death.”

That’s quite the phrase, “a conscience-led turn towards death.” Does it mean the self-sacrifice of martyrdom? No. Does it mean laying down one’s life for another? No. It means the supposedly informed decision to end one’s own life to avoid earthly suffering. The “autonomy of human decision-making” may not be “alone,” but hiding under the name of “conscience,” it still gets the final word.

This is a dramatic change from earlier Christian faith. The Anglican Church of Canada’s official Prayer Book still testifies to the contrary. In its order for the burial of the dead, it says, “The Office ensuing is not to be used for any that die unbaptized, or excommunicate, or by their own willful act while in a sound state of mind.” That Prayer Book, put out in 1962, reflects the same position as the one found in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and surely that of Christian history. The reason that office is not to be used for such cases is because it proclaims assurance of salvation, assuming that the person died in a state of grace. “Conscience-led” suicide was sufficient reason not to make such an assumption. And this is because conscience-led suicide was understood to be grave sin.

Physician-assisted suicide is not only a Canadian problem. Thirteen U.S. states, as well as the District of Columbia, also allow their citizens to make use of “medical assistance” in taking their own lives. Churches in the United States, as well as Canada, should expect to be confronted with this challenge more and more directly.

Instead of baptizing the practice, our ministers should proclaim the true message of human dignity. Because humans are created in the image of God, we ought not to do anything that abuses, defaces, or harms that image. We do not have the authority to take our own life. Instead, the Scriptures teach that “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (Genesis 9:6). Christians especially know that our bodies belong to God, having been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Suicide, then, is also a sort of theft.

The only way that a church can find itself having “conversations” over whether to consecrate medical suicide is if it has already exchanged the testimony of God for contemporary cultural trends. We should all pray that the churches silence these conversations with the Word of God and the historic testimony of the Christian tradition. Until then, we should start making a lot more noise.