No-one can doubt that euthanasia or “the right to die” will gradually start to have overwhelming support – at least in the West – as the average life-span increases every year, care facilities for the very elderly and sick remain hugely inadequate and the Christian faith continues to wane. For these reasons, Sister Nuala Kenny’s recent book, Rediscovering the Art of Dying (Novalis) should be read by all who want to defend a Christian approach to death and dying and to revive the “ars moriandi”.
Dying is only an “art” if life is considered to be one also; as St Paul puts it in his letter to the Ephesians, “We are God’s work of art”. The profound implications of this statement are a direct rebuke to the view that we are merely autonomous individuals who have the right to control the time and manner of our death just as we have made autonomous decisions all our lives.
