In praise of ‘death with dignity’

By Tom Quiner

Quiner’s Diner supports ‘death with dignity.’

Let’s define terms, beginning with dignity. The word dignity connotes ‘worth,’ ‘respectability,’ ‘grace,’ ‘decency,’ and ‘virtue.’   In other words, dignity suggests that the meaning of our life transcends the flesh and bones that hold our physical bodies together.

Dignity states that our lives have meaning. Even more, it suggests that our pain and suffering rises to a level of profound significance. The dignity of life demands that death be dignified, because so much purpose is revealed to us in suffering and in the dying process.

No contemporary saint understood this better than Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Her mission was to care for the abandoned and the dying, men and women literally found abandoned in the gutters of Calcutta.

She and her Sisters showered these souls with love, confirming their God-given dignity.

This outpouring of love has had an amazing impact on the world. People flocked to Calcutta to help. Women took up vocations. By the time of her death in 1997, her loving ministry was at work in 123 countries around the world with 610 foundations supporting the poor and honoring the dying with authentic death with dignity.

If saints listened to the culture of death with indignity, these dying poor would have been euthanized with the rationale that they’re ‘better off this way, because now their suffering is over.’

Saint Mother Teresa didn’t have the formal education of a, say, Richard Dawkins, one of the world’s most well-known evangelical atheists who supports euthanasia under the moniker of ‘death with dignity.’ But she has a wisdom that flows to her from Christ Himself:

“Pain and suffering have come into your life, but remember pain, sorrow, suffering are but the kiss of Jesus – a sign that you have come so close to Him that He can kiss you.”

Pain makes us more human.

Suffering draws us closer to Christ.

Infirmity makes those around us more human, because it teaches us to love sacrificially, as Christ loved us sacrificially.

Nothing can be more undignified than snuffing out a human life when it becomes inconvenient, as we do with the preborn. Abuse is inevitable. In fact, abuse is here, as you can see in the video above.

It is cheaper to encourage people to die than to encourage them to live.

The culture’s definition of ‘death with dignity’ is a sick joke. It cheapens the human experience. Let’s call it what it is: ‘death with indignity.’ A more honest description would be murder.

This blog supports authentic death with dignity, not the abomination being foisted on us by the culture of death.