▶Life Team ▶Beauty of Life ▶Defending Life ▶Beginning of Life ▶End of Life ▶Suicide
Understanding End of Life Challenges
Contemplating end of life issues is never easy, but it is important to plan ahead. Our Life Team has assembled a list of resources to help you as you consider your own planning, assist others, and advocate in our community.
Losing a loved one is always very difficult; on top of the grieving, there is a lot to take care of! We present this downloadable checklist to assist you, your friends and loved ones, and recommend that you review it even as you work through your end of life planning.
Organ Donation and Time of Death
Motivated by love for neighbor, many Christians have designated themselves to be organ donors at the time of death. While Scripture teaches that the time of death occurs when a person stops breathing, namely when the heart and lungs stop, medical teams rely on the concept of, “brain death,” in order to acquire organs that are spared from damage due to the lack of blood supply. The problem with this is that individuals with so-called, “brain death” often do in fact have some brain function remaining. Additionally, the rest of the body remains alive. Finally, the criteria for determining, “brain death” are often subjective and not applied in the same manner by all medical centers. Given this reality, as you complete your Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (copies available in the CLC Narthex), we urge you, especially if you wish to donate organs, to consider specifying in writing how you want the medical team to determine that your earthly life has ended. More information is available here.