Gerson on Euthanasia | National Catholic Reporter

Gerson on Euthanasia | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: The best line on suicide is that it is a permanent solution to temporary problem.  That mainly has to do with depression. Such depression is often not just a transitory thing - it is often a life-long affliction.  While one hopes that someone stays around to keep the sufferer feeling love, it is an alienating disease.



Depression is not the only reason to suicide.  Even St. Thomas More, in his Utopia, justified euthanasia for the terminally ill.  While there is a great dignity in facing death naturally, a more deliberate route may not be any less dignified.  Relatives supporting such a decision are not discarding their loved one, as can happen in depression, they are likely assisting in mercy.  Of course, depression is sometimes part of it and that is alienating.  In both cases, there is a failure of solidarity - but that is part of death, regardless of how we deny it.



In war, giving ones life - even in suicidal attacks - is considered heroic.  Durkheim, in his piece on suicide, shows that it is culturally bound.  No American soldier who has violated honor or refused to be dishonored by an unlawful order would dream of suicide as a political statement.  Monks in Viet Nam suiciding publicly helped get rid of U.S. backed President Diem (until  we sanctioned his murder).  Samurai are noted for suicide in the face of dishonor.  Suicide is often seen as a final protest at the bad treatment by loved ones.



Gay teens who feel their parents have put theologically based prejudice over love for them often suicide because of both despair and to express their disappointment and hate.  Indeed, it is a particularly nasty statement to make for relatives but it often comes from hurt and the desire to hurt back (and there is no value to the latter).  What was not mentioned is the standard Catholic reason - that God gave you life and only he can take it.  That is the God as Ogre theory and I am pretty sure I don't buy it as anything but a sophistry, however I would condemn it as a final act of hate. It does give one pause, however, that this king of hate may have a legitimate cause, especially for gay kids who should never be given up on by a theology of bigotry.