Schimmoeller Ethan M
College of Medicine, The University of Cincinnati, OH, USA.
Division of Bioethics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
Linacre Q. 2021 Feb;88(1):56-64. doi: 10.1177/0024363920927311. Epub 2020 Jun 2.
Christ has fashioned a remedy for the human condition out of mortality, making death the paradoxical means of salvation. Thus, the early Church saw martyrdom as the best kind of death, epitomized in the story of St. Ignatius of Antioch. He saw his death in Christ to be a birth into eternal life. Yet martyrdom and suicide can be conflated under crafty definitions and novel terminology, leading inevitably to calls to soften prohibitions against physician-assisted suicide. Whereas martyrdom locates death within the Christian lived experience of the Paschal mystery, suicide transfers the sovereignty of God over life and death to the individual, necessarily denying the goodness of creation in the process. I point to a liturgical foundation for bioethics as a better starting point for understanding martyrdom and suicide. Entering Christ's sacrifice, Christians receive divine life and new vision to locate suffering, death, and health care within the Christian salvation narrative.
Confusing martyrdom and suicide locates ethics outside the Church by bending language around the 5th commandment. St. Ignatius of Antioch's martyrdom clarifies the role of the Christian bioethicist to situate health care in the Church's life-giving liturgical experience.
基督已从必死性中为人类状况塑造出一种补救办法，使死亡成为具有矛盾性的救赎手段。因此，早期教会将殉道视为最佳的死亡方式，安提阿的圣依纳爵的故事便是其典型代表。他将自己在基督里的死亡视为进入永生的新生。然而，殉道和自杀可能会在巧妙的定义和新奇的术语下被混为一谈，这不可避免地导致要求放宽对医生协助自杀的禁令。殉道将死亡置于逾越奥迹的基督徒生活体验之中，而自杀则将上帝对生死的主权转移给个人，在此过程中必然否定了创造的美好。我指出生物伦理学的礼仪基础是理解殉道和自杀的更好起点。基督徒进入基督的牺牲，便能领受神圣生命和新的视野，从而将苦难、死亡和医疗保健置于基督教的救赎叙事之中。
将殉道和自杀混为一谈，通过曲解围绕第五条诫命的语言，将伦理置于教会之外。安提阿的圣依纳爵的殉道阐明了基督教生物伦理学家的角色，即将医疗保健置于教会赋予生命的礼仪体验之中。
