Sequim Gazette Editorial and Letters to the Editor

As a pastor who has served in Port Angeles and Sequim, I have had the privilege of walking the halls of Olympic Medical Center, visiting members of my congregation for 27 years. I have never stayed overnight except for one sleepless night wired up in the sleep clinic.

In all those years, I have been warmly welcomed by hospital staff, and the many I have come to pray with have often expressed their appreciation for the quality of care received.

In my present congregation, there are 18 nurses, five pharmacists and one surgeon, but the thoughts I am about to share concerning the OMC board's decision to "opt out" of I-1000 on March 4 are my own.

I commend the board for making a good

and courageous decision in determining not to participate in the Death With Dignity Act, or assisted suicide law, as well as the 16 individuals who spoke from the floor both passionately and respectfully.

It was quite an evening. Clearly everyone present was in favor of compassionate end-of-life care, and 14 of the speakers felt the OMC board could find a better solution than offering a fatal dose of medication for the terminally ill.

Also, that our hospital should continue to be committed to life-sustaining care rather than be an administration of death or in any way complicit in facilitating the suicide process.

I could see how I-1000 puts doctors, nurses and pharmacists in an impossible moral dilemma. How can any physician, as the law provides, confidently determine that a patient is terminal with six months or less to live?

A member of our church who has cancer was told by her doctors that she had two months to live, which would have qualified her for assisted suicide, though I don't believe for a minute she would have chosen that path. She lived another 20 years.

Suicide is not simply a political issue; it is a moral issue. We should ask ourselves whether suicide is ever right. Not all believe in moral absolutes as I do, but even our laws are aimed at keeping people from ending their own life.

For example, I am legally required to report an intended suicide. Why is it right for the terminally ill to end their life but not right for the non-terminally ill to end theirs? What about a terminally ill child - who would make the decision for assisted suicide?

If the driving force behind assisted suicide is compassion, then why only compassion for those we think are terminal? What about the non-terminal who are tormented by devastating and painful illness? Should they not be allowed to end their constant misery in the name of compassion? Or what of the person who suffers under the emotional pain of chronic clinical depression and longs only for death? Is permitting that the next logical step?

In ancient Jerusalem, I saw several gates along the city walls: the Damascus Gate, Joppa Gate, etc. It's called the Damascus Gate because if you leave the city through that gate and keep going you will end up in Damascus.

Where does the Assisted Suicide Gate lead us? We have no contour map marking trail head and destination. We can only imagine.

Forty years ago, parents would have paled at the thought that their daughter could terminate her pregnancy without their knowledge or consent. Today most of us would find it unthinkable that our child could receive a lethal dose of medications to escape the anguish of gross disfigurement as a burn victim in the name of compassion without consent.

Do we know that would never happen? Could we be unwittingly paving the way for a drastic values shift in our dynamic culture?

Wisdom is the ability to understand cause and effect relationships within our physical universe and be guided by that understanding. We quickly learn that if we want to harvest corn we have to plant corn and not peas, or if we wish to hike to Royal Basin we shouldn't take the trail head to Tubal Cain.

The same is true in our moral universe. Wisdom causes us to ask: If we take this path, where will we end up?

Foresight is the ability to connect the dots and anticipate an outcome. The ability to combine these two is a developed skill. We have the moral responsibility to ask where the Death With Dignity Act might lead us as more states jump on board and the momentum builds.

The Bible says we will reap what we sow. Over time, legalized suicide may indeed lead to broader boundaries for assisted suicide.

I commend the OMC board for choosing to continue on the

path of sustaining life and health, for choosing a course of wisdom and foresight. I applaud them for their leadership and commitment to improve end-of-life care and to be a voice of reason and compassion as they fulfill their Hippocratic oath.

As for me, I am content to leave my end-of-life in my Creator's hands, the One who has numbered my days, who is good and does all things well.

Scott Culver is pastor at Dungeness Community Church.