Does your religious or philosophical tradition teach that suicide can ever be an ethical act? And what is your personal belief?  Humanists usually support the right of individuals to make decisions about their own lives, including the right to end a life of incurable, unbearable suffering.  At the same time, there are legitimate practical questions about legalizing assisted suicide, such as the pain of loved ones who would have preferred the person die a “natural” death, or, conversely, the possibility that legalizing assisted suicide would pressure people to commit suicide just to save their families from the astronomical medical bills that often accompany end-of-life care. What does your tradition teach, and/or what do you think? Under what circumstances, if any, do we have the right to choose our own exit from life? Should the State allow physicians or others to aid people seeking a clean and painless death?

There are religion blogs and then there are religion blogs.

The Civil Religion blog is civil, the writing is good and the posts are frequent.

(1) When we were discussing the set-up of this blog, religion reporter Tim Townsend suggested we look at the Washington Post religion blog, On Faith, to see what a religion blog looks like. I found it confusingly laid out and not appealing and said so to Tim. Today I have another reason to stay away. Look at this from the Dallas Morning News blog:

“Sally Quinn, the Washington socialite and journalist, attended Tim Russert’s funeral.

Russert was Catholic. Quinn isn’t. In fact, as far as I can tell, she isn’t demonstrably religious at all, despite being one of the founders of the On Faith blog published by Newsweek and The Washington Post.

She decided to receive Communion at Russert’s funeral Mass.

In some churches, this would be no big deal. In the Catholic Church,…