The Anchoress‘ brother, “S”, passed away this morning. She and her family have my condolences and prayers.

Dodger’s sleeping but Bitsy looks interested…

(not photoshopped – my Mother bought me the book [review {BlogFlog} to follow])

Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost is posting on the Dutch Euthanasia decision by the Royal Dutch Medical Association that doctors ought to be able to help those “suffering through living” to have doctor assisted suicide.

There will always be utterly selfish people who think that suicide is the way out of any trouble they’re in. They don’t think through to all the trouble that they leave behind.

This seems to give those who would commit suicide some kind of validation of their selfish determination to end their life. “Oh, you lost your job and can’t pay your bills? I diagnose suffering through living. Here’s a presciption for something that will end your suffering by ending your life.” Depending on your particular views of an afterlife this might end your suffering, or it might be only the beginning…

Drew at Darn Floor wrote on this a while ago and I linked to his post in this post of mine.

One of the commenters (Mark O) on Joe’s post reminds us of Romans 5:3-5

³Not only so, but we^[a] also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope.
⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.