To the editor:

There’s a Medical Aid in Dying Act before the New York Legislature. I hope they pass it. I understand our neighboring states of Vermont and New Jersey as well as seven other states have already enacted this law.

I’m a retired pastor, now 75. Apparently, no exception has been made in my case, so I need to make friends with what Keats called “Easeful death.” I’ve prayed at many death beds, seen hundreds of parishioners get a terminal disease. Two of my brothers endured horrific suffering as they neared their deaths. It’s a hard subject. Many of my clergy colleagues disagree with me, and they may be right.

What’s a theological basis for Medical Aid in Dying? One of the major themes of the Bible is stewardship. We are stewards. What’s that? A steward is someone who is entrusted by an owner with the care of something highly valued by the owner. Adam and Eve, in the beginning story of the Bible, are placed in the garden of Eden and charged with caring for it. That’s an image of the human calling to be stewards of the earth. Jesus’ parables often deal with stewards, some of whom were bums who robbed the owner while others were exemplary.

St. Paul says we are to “steward the mysteries of God” (Ephesians 5). Among these mysteries are the planet, our bodies, our marriages, our families, our vocations and our money. Across history, we humans have, yes, messed up what God creates, but we have also, in many areas, found ways to steward land and wildlife and our bodies so that life can better flourish. And we have learned that we don’t have to be resigned to whatever happens as God’s will, because God welcomes our co-creativity. Think, for instance, of our fairly recent ability to better determine our family’s size.

Death is, for sure, one of the mysteries. It always will be. There are car crashes and sudden huge strokes and guns that go off and other experiences of sudden death. Very tough. But for most of us, there will be a disease that will take our life from us, and give us time to prepare to die and to manage dying itself. To be comfortable and at peace and tended by loved ones is a wonderful thing, not just for the dying person but for everyone in his or her circle.

In 47 years of pastoral ministry, I’ve learned that it is sometimes really difficult for doctors and nurses to sustain comfort in the face of such ravages as aggressive late-stage cancers. Why should not the dying person be empowered to say goodbye and take a medication that brings breathing gently to its end? Obviously, only that person, feeling the approach of death, has the right to decide to do this. But demanding that the dying endure agony because we think God wants them to? God is not cruel; God is merciful. Jesus, contemplating his own death, said he would “accomplish his exodus.” That seems to me to be a good framework for us to contemplate.

The Rev. Jeff Black

Saranac Lake