Help to suicide

His Excellency
Bishop Hermann Glettler
Domplatz 5
AT-6020 Innsbruck

Most Revered Excellency, dear Bishop Hermann!

I heard of your sermon on All Saints’ Day on the subject of “Euthanasia” with great interest and greatest sympathy. In high respect for your pastoral service, I would like to reply to you.

Let me start off by saying that the idea of the “dying decree” was my initiative. Ever since the groundbreaking decision of the Constitutional Court last year, I have tried to find a solution to this morbid problem that is as life-affirming as possible.

For this purpose, I immediately started contacting the relevant authorities on this issue. In addition to the key figures of legislation in parliament and government, these were in particular outstanding jurists and, of course, church dignitaries, in particular Cardinal Christoph Schönborn and Archbishop Franz Lackner, the chairman of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference.

Dear Bishop Hermann, you understandably describe the “help to suicide” as a “cultural breach of the dam”. I fully agree with you, at least as our country is concerned. I also agree with Archbishop Lackner when he says: “We Christians don’t do that.” No matter how we understand “Conception by the Holy Spirit” and “Resurrection”, it is based on our belief that life is sacred from conception to death.

You yourself say in your sermon: “We neither have the beginning nor the end of our life at our disposal.” We Christians firmly believe and are fully convinced that there is something greater that governs our creation. As Pope Francis explained in front of the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2015: “We Christians, together with the other monotheistic religions, believe that the universe is the fruit of a loving decision by the Creator, who permits man respectfully to use creation for the good of his fellow men and for the glory of the Creator.” This is our solid common ground.

Thus we come to our challenge. “There is only one really serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Deciding whether or not life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question in philosophy.” This is what Albert Camus wrote at the beginning of his book “The Myth of Sisyphus”. Our answer as Christians is an irrevocable “yes”. Life is worth living from conception to death because it is sacred in itself. This is and remains non-negotiable, despite all adversities, despite all sacrifices, despite all suffering. “Yes to life – in spite of everything,” replied Viktor Frankl even after the hell of Auschwitz.

However, what do we do when a person does not share this belief? What do we do if a person makes himself master of life, be it at the beginning or at the end? What do we do if a person ends life, be it in the womb or in dying? What do we do if a person kills his unborn child or himself? What should we do?

Since the Enlightenment we have had the separation between state and religion, in Austria, in Europe, as well as in the world. Since then we have lived the separation between law and morality. Since then, the state has decided what people are “allowed” to do and religions have decided what people “should” do. The Austrian Constitutional Court administered last year that a human may kill himself. From this it necessarily follows that he may be helped.

This verdict was to be expected, and I personally think it is well differentiated and balanced. Whether we like it as Christians or not, a human has the right to kill himself. This is all too coherent, because a human also has the right to kill his child in the womb in an emergency. In Austria, people have the right to kill their unborn child and themselves if necessary. As Christians we have to accept that.

This was the challenging requirement of the Constitutional Court last year. The task now was to rule out any abuse. In the search for a suitable solution to this difficult problem, Homer’s “Odyssey” came to my mind, namely Odysseus’ Temptation by the Sirens.

In that episode of the Odyssey, the basic human problem is dealt with, namely to choose between long-term insight and short-term seduction. Odysseus had known before that the sirens would seduce him with their singing as he and his crew sailed past. He had therefore ordered his followers to seal their ears with wax and tie him to the mast. He had urged them not to untie him under any circumstances, even if he asked them to do so as they sailed by. When the situation arose, he begged to be untied and revoked his order. But his loyal crew did not listen to him in this situation, but remembered his instruction before. This enabled them to resist the temptation and so they were saved.

This story is the base for the idea of the “dying decree”. Odysseus had already decided BEFOREHAND how to proceed in the critical situation. The same thing happens in the “dying decree”. The person has to decide BEFOREHAND how to proceed in the critical situation. If he fails to do this, he must not be untied. However, if he does this in a self-determined way BEFOREHAND, then this is not only to be accepted but also to be respected.

Apart from the problem of abuse, which is excluded in principle by this model and therefore negotiable in detail, the fundamental problem for us Christians arises that a person wants to end his life himself. How do we want to deal with it? How should we deal with it?

With “help to suicide”, the circle that began with “abortion” at the beginning of life is now closed at the end of life. How should we deal with someone who wants to kill himself or his unborn child? How do we want to deal with it?

This brings us back to the “conception of the Holy Spirit” and the “resurrection”. We Christians are confronted with the foundations of our faith, with our “secret of faith”.

How do we want to deal with people who kill out of necessity? How do we want to deal with people who kill their unborn child or themselves in an emergency? Do we really want to punish them without any mercy ? Or do we want to help them with all mercy? And what do we do if they do not accept our help to say yes to life anyway and still kill out of necessity? Do we want to make it difficult for them or easy?

I agree with all Christians to make it as easy as possible for everyone to say yes to life anyway, whether at the beginning of life or at its end. But what if a person nevertheless decides against it? Do we want to have him punished?

Dear Bishop Hermann, I myself was already in the position of wanting to kill myself. In February 2005, I took a massive overdose of sleeping pills on a Thursday morning to die. I woke up again on Sunday morning, “on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” Today I am grateful that I survived and will therefore not apply for a “dying decree”.

As Bishop of Innsbruck, in the heart of the Alps, I would like to tell it to you with the following parable: I will not break off this arduous route to the peak prematurely in order to be picked up by an helicopter shortly before. Like a marathon runner, I want to get through this life to the end in order to reach the finish myself with the last of my strength. I didn’t go all the way to give up just before the end. I want to live through this life up to the end, because I know that the reward for this effort is waiting for me. I want to experience the victory of my life with all of my power.

But what happens to those who want to break off life prematurely? What happens to those who kill themselves? What happens to those who choose to commit suicide, whatever we call it? What happens to the suicides? What happens after the suicide?

This brings us to the crucial question of our faith: On the night of Good Friday, after the “last supper”, Jesus was deceived by two of his disciples. These two were Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, and Simon Peter, who denied Jesus. Both repented of their deed, Peter “went out and wept bitterly” (Mt 26.75), Judas on the other hand “hanged himself” (Mt 27.3). Simon Peter regretted his behavior, only to become the “rock of our church” afterwards. Judas Iscariot, on the other hand, repented by returning the blood money and ending his life.

Dear Bishop Hermann, I am asking you the same question that I asked Archbishop Lackner: What do we believe in? Which God do we believe in? Do we believe in the punishing or in the merciful God? What is the Basis of Our Faith, Heaven or Hell? Judas betrayed Jesus. He regretted this and killed himself. He committed “suicide”.

Dear Bishop Hermann, I ask you: How did God deal with Judas? Did God punish him or was God merciful? Or is it both? Was the suicide punishment enough? Did God take Judas into heaven after his suicide? Has God forgiven him in the meantime? Is Judas in heaven now?

“We Christians, together with the other monotheistic religions, believe that the universe is the fruit of a loving decision by the Creator, who permits man respectfully to use creation for the good of his fellow men and for the glory of the Creator.”

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Deus Caritas Est, God is love.

In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.

The answer is: Yes.

I wish you all the best from the bottom of my heart

Peter Wurm

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