When a loved one is dying from a chronic illness, family members turn to each other for support. People of faith also seek support and strength from their church leaders and fellow parishioners. But a recent decision threatens those avenues of support for people who choose to end their pain with assisted dying.
The Catholic Bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories have issued guidelines that say priests should refuse funerals to parishioners who choose assisted dying. They may allow a graveside service or some other non-church service. Full funerals may be allowed for families who were not aware their loved one chose assisted death.
While the bishops allow priests to weigh the circumstances in each funeral request, they direct that any high-profile assisted deaths be denied church funerals. “This would be truly scandalous, as it would be an encouragement to others to engage in the evil that is euthanasia and assisted suicide,” the guidelines say.
Catholic bishops have the right to set the guidelines for their priests and Catholic followers. The church’s spiritual leader Pope Francis has condemned assisted dying and recommended better palliative care to allow people to die in more comfortable circumstances. The pope is on the mark that there is a need for better and more available palliative care. If more people can be comfortable in their dying days, fewer may choose assisted dying.
But in the instances when a person in pain who has no hope for recovery decides to end the suffering, they should not have to deceive the family or the church to do so. They should not be shamed into lingering in pain to be deserving of a church funeral.
Families and individuals do not take these decisions lightly; to have to watch a family member suffer when they have asked to be let go is painful to endure. Asking the sick to suffer in order to qualify for a full funeral is shaming and lacking in compassion to the dying, their family members and the priests who minister to them.
This will mean some Catholics may choose not to share the time and nature of their death with family in order to qualify for a church funeral. This deprives the dying and their loved ones of the very support they need, adding further suffering to all concerned.
The numbers are small. There will be no mass lineups to choose assisted death. Since the law changed in Canada on June 6, fewer than 30 Albertans have requested assisted death. Dying people deserve to be supported by their families, fellow parishioners and church leaders.
As the bishops’ guidelines themselves say: “It must always be remembered that the burial of the dead is among the corporal works of mercy.”
These guidelines do not reflect an act of mercy and need to be reconsidered.
