James E Weaver
#0
Recently my wife and I attended a presentation on the Five Wishes program, a way to develop one's living will. Because the medical world is so complex end of life issues are increasingly complex. Some procedures designed for the saving of life at certain times of life ultimately destroy life while keeping the body alive. Have you devised your 'living will', and if so, how have you ensured its being Orthodox?
BTW, if you need more info about 'living wills' what they are and some of the complex issues before you answer the question above, please message me. :o
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Marie Moffitt
#1
Of course I have a living will! I am cancer patient and my family has faced these issues in an Orthodox manner many times over many decades.
There are no completely cut-and-dried Orthodox answers for most of these questions. Every case is different and the Orthodox response will be different and probably varied. For example, our Bishop told us personally that there was no Orthodox reason for my mother to keeps herself alive artificially, but that statement applied to her specific case and no other. My mother and I both spent much of our lives in the medical world, so she was not, and I am not, on unfamiliar ground.
I see a lot of recent converts to Orthodoxy on Orthodox Circle with a lot of crazy misconceptions about what is allowed. For example, some people seem to believe that you can't will your body to medicine. A friend of ours in a predominantly Orthodox country did that years ago with her bishop's blessing. How do you think medical schools in Orthodox countries get their cadavers? All that is required is that the body will be treated with respect (US medical schools do that - I work in one) and that the body be buried after its use is complete.
There are a lot of books on Orthodox medical ethics, and there is a broad spectrum of acceptable opinions in the Church. We are not like the Roman Catholic Church with it's detailed mandates based on principles the Orthodox largely reject.
God is merciful and death for the Orthodox Christian is falling asleep in the Lord. I had no problem completing my end-of-life paperwork before my first surgery for cancer, but the non-Christian co-worker who notarized it was in tears.
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