Engelhardt H Tristram
Christ Bioeth. 1998 Aug;4(2):143-67. doi: 10.1076/chbi.4.2.143.6908.
The traditional Christian focus concerning dying is on repentance, not dignity. The goal of a traditional Christian death is not a pleasing, final chapter to life, but union with God: holiness. The pursuit of holiness requires putting on Christ and accepting His cross. In contrast, post-traditional Christian and secular concerns with self-determination, control, dignity, and self-esteem make physician-assisted suicide and voluntary active euthanasia plausible moral choices. Such is not the case within the context of the traditional Christian experience of God, which throughout its 2000 years has sternly condemned suicide and assisted suicide. The wrongness of such actions cannot adequately be appreciated outside the experience of that Christian life. Traditional Christian appreciations of death involve an epistemology and metaphysics of values in discordance with those of secular morality. This difference in the appreciation of the meaning of dying and death, as well as in the appreciation of the moral significance of suicide, discloses a new battle in the culture wars separating traditional Christian morality from that of the surrounding society.
传统基督教对于死亡的关注点在于忏悔，而非尊严。传统基督教徒死亡的目标并非是人生令人愉悦的最后篇章，而是与上帝合一：即圣洁。追求圣洁需要披上基督的外衣并接受他的十字架。相比之下，后传统基督教以及世俗对于自我决定、掌控、尊严和自尊的关注，使得医生协助自杀和自愿主动安乐死成为看似合理的道德选择。在传统基督教对上帝的体验背景下情况并非如此，在其长达2000年的历史中，一直严厉谴责自杀和协助自杀行为。在基督教生活体验之外，无法充分理解此类行为的错误性。传统基督教对死亡的认知涉及一种价值认识论和形而上学，与世俗道德的价值认识论和形而上学不一致。在对死亡意义的认知以及对自杀道德意义的认知上的这种差异，揭示了在将传统基督教道德与周围社会道德区分开来的文化战争中的一场新战斗。
