May 7, 1998
Mindful of our leadership positions in the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faith communities that we serve in Southeastern Michigan, and aware of the physician-assisted suicide phenomenon which occupies the attention of our community, we take this unprecedented step of issuing a joint statement against assisted suicide.
We believe that life is a gift from the divine Creator, temporarily entrusted to us as faithful guardians of this sacred trust.
Our shared traditions speak against the use of physician-assisted suicide as an acceptable means of confronting end-of-life decision making.
Those who promote this last, fatal escape as a "right" should remember that such a "right" may quickly become an expectation and, finally, even a "duty" to die. We fear that eventually some individuals and families will be forced to put financial concerns above the needs of loved ones.
Because we value the dignity of each person, we call upon our communities to extend their compassion and care to the chronically ill and the dying. While this care includes relief from suffering through medical solutions, it also involves any psychological and spiritual support needed by the suffering. This care is also to be extended to the families and caregivers of the dying.
We believe the dignity of the human person is an inestimable value in our faith traditions. These values are at the heart of the current discussion on self-determination of the time and place of one's death. Knowing that people of good will disagree on these serious matters, we call upon all parties to conduct the communal with respect, and to refrain from personal attacks and ridicule.
We call for calm reflection and prayer, within the disciplines of our faith traditions, to come to the knowledge of what is required of us as stewards, not owners, of human life.
At 10 a.m. Thursday at the Shaarey Zedek synagogue in Southfield, the following religious leaders are expected to sign the letter:
Hazel Boltwood, American Baptist Churches; Rev. Edward Gehres Jr., Presbytery of Detroit, Presbyterian Church; Rabbi Irwin Groner, Michigan Board of Rabbis, Congregation Shaarey Zedek; Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi, Islamic House of Wisdom; Bishop Ibrahim N. Ibrahim, Chaldean Catholic Diocese of America; Adam Cardinal Maida, Archdiocese of Detroit; Bishop J. Philip Wahl, Southeast Michigan Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Bishop R. Stewart Wood Jr., Episcopal Diocese of Michigan.