In Sure and Certain Hope: Resources to Assist Pastoral and Theological Approaches to Physician Assisted Dying

What is offered in the pages that follow is a framework for effective pastoral support for all concerned (patients, family, loved ones, care providers, and wider communities of support), whatever decisions particular patients ultimately believe themselves called to make. We also recommend study of Care in Dying along with this present text.

We will first outline some basic theological and biblical insights and seek to imagine how they might serve us in our current situation. This will then lead us to some unanswered questions. We believe that those questions need to be addressed in the regulations that will surround and support the social practices associated with physician assisted dying.