
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, November 7, 1994                   TAG: 9411120051
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

END-OF-LIFE CARE FROM A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE

When should we begin or end mechanical life support for a terminally ill person? When does one more treatment become one too many for a dying person? Should a Christian's faith affect his or her decision for treating a terminally ill patient or family member?

"Healthcare Decisions at the End of Life - A Christian Perspective" is a public forum designed to address those questions and others next weekend at St. John's Episcopal Church.

"We hope to give health-care workers [as well as individuals and family members] the undergirding they need to make decisions as Christians," said the Rev. Carlotta Cochran, the minister of outreach at St. John's.

End-of-life medical care has been complicated by technological advances in the last generation, Cochran said. Ethical concerns about the quality of the lives being lengthened and the use of limited medical resources complicate already difficult decisions, she said.

What is called a Lay Ministry Conference on the subject will be Saturday from 9 a.m. until noon at St. John's, Jefferson Street and Elm Avenue.

The keynote speaker will be the Rev. David Allan Scott, a professor of ethics and theology at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. He's written numerous scholarly articles on theology, sexuality, abortion, and church doctrine. Medical ethics is a special emphasis of his seminary teaching.

Other speakers will be the Right Rev. A. Heath Light, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia who has made a special study of bio-medical ethics; Dr. Stephen S. Kennedy, an oncologist and hematologist at the Cancer Center of Southwest Virginia and a St. John's parishioner; and the Rev. Jacqueline Segar Gravatt, director of chaplaincy services at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and an Episcopal deacon.

The forum may not provide answers so much as "discussion of the Christian component" of the issue, Cochran said. "We will examine how Christians have looked at the issues traditionally" and how to incorporate a "Christian view of the sanctity of life" in decision-making.

The forum is free and open to all. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. Saturday. Participants are asked to call 343-9341 to reserve seats.

by CNB