Dignity and Dying: A Christian Appraisal--"Definitions of Death" by B. Holly Vautier, a PCUSA pastor who has suffered from a chronic, disabling illness for 26 years.  Vautier addresses: Definitions and Declarations; Roots and Fruits; The Past--Perils of Non-Personhood; The Present--Failing the Personhood Test; The Future--Inclusivity or Utility?; Death, Personhood, and Life.  This is an important discussion of the protection of life.   May/Jun 1997 Theology Matters p. 1

A "New Day," or Journey Into Night? A Review of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Study Guide on Euthanasia and Assisted Death by B. Holly Vautier, a PCUSA pastor who has suffered from a chronic, disabling illness for 26 years.  Vautier writes, "Very early in tehs tudy materials the biblical 'sanctity of life' ethic is challenged by a replacement ethic in which choosing death can be an acceptable or even desirable option.  Candidates for death are person s whose 'quality of life' is judged to be so low that their lives are not worth living." May/Jun 1997 Theology Matters  p. 5

Wishing People Dead by Nancy L. Harvey, reprinted with permission from First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, Nov. 1993, No. 37.  "Christine Busalacchi, a Missouri woman suffering from serious brain damage, died on the 8th of March, 1993.  The cause of death was starvation....Christine's death followed the deliberate decision of the state's attorney general to allow those involved in her medical treatment to withhold food and water on the ground s that life support was no longer beneficial to her."  May/Jun 1997 Theology Matters   p. 7.

Dignity, Always Dignity by Frederica Mathewes-Green, reprinted wihthpermission from World Magazine, Feb. 18, 1995.  Mathewes-Green writes, "Where indeed did we get the idea that dignity is better than life? Where we ever promised in Scripture that we can die, or do anything else, with dignity? Is God so mindful of our pride? ...We want our deaths to be free from pain, mess, embarrassment. But there is a long Christian tradition of 'holy death,' that is, of allowing even a hard death to be a witness to God's grace...."  May/Jun 1997 Theology Matters  p. 10

Bioethics: A Primer for Christians, "Suicide and Euthanasia" by Gilbert Meilaender, reprinted with permission from Bioethics: A Primer for Christians (Eerdmans, 1996), pp 57-67.   Regarding suicide, Meilaender writes, "Christians to not approach this issue by first thinking in terms of a 'right to life' or a 'right to die with dignity.' That is to say, we do not start with the language of independence." May/Jun 1997 Theology Matters    p. 11