Churches in Germany want their federal government to abolish the new emerging culture of assisted suicide which if promoted has a potential of cascading to Africa.
Like homosexuality which is acceptable in statutes of most of the European states, the west has been rocked by yet another “immoral culture” according to the church, of people and institutions which are assisting ‘desperate’ people to die in ‘peace’.
Fearing for the cascading to Africa of this “immoral culture” the Church is said to be divided over the acceptance of the behavior
In Germany the churches are in the process of engaging the Angela Merkel administration and persuade it to ban such organizations from operating in Germany with discussions in parliament currently going on.
“This situation is disturbing us here in Germany because we believe that life is a God given gift which one should not take away from a person .We have a number of organizations and doctors here in Germany who are assisting people to die. They are doing this in the name of human rights where those who would have suffered from chronic illnesses and other diseases for a long time volunteer to die.
“There is value in everybody’s life
“I the church we have a number of people taking this route and this is disturbing and tearing apart the church .We have one of the senior Bishops in one of the churches here whose wife is suffering from cancer and has decided to go to for assisted suicide.
“She had already asked her husband (the bishop) to accompany her any time soon to go and get suicide assistance. The Bishop has admitted to accompany her and give her a good bye. This is a painful scenario and situation,”Deputy of the Plenipotentiary of the Council of the Representative of the Council the protestant church in Germany to the federal republic of Germany and the European Union (KED) Dr Stephen Iro told Zimbabwean journalists in Berlin last week.
Dr Iro believed assisted suicides were tantamount to murder and should not be allowed in an country.
“It is not our intention to influence Africa with such behaviors which we as the church believe are immoral, hence our call for the abolition of the assisted suicide,” he added.
Because the west sets precedence for the developing nations which assimilate and associate themselves with them there is a danger of assisted suicide to cascade down to Africa through the global media the same way homosexuality and other western culture reached Africa.
“We now have no problems with gay marriages in our churches as we have all agreed that we should not discriminate against anyone .What we are doing instead is to encourage partners to be honesty to each other, respect one other, be faithful and stay in harmony .We say no to punishment, discrimination and imprisonment to people engaging in such activities in accordance with human rights,”Dr Iro explained.
The Catholics are not spared in this discourse according to Deputy Director of the Catholic office responsible for basic issues related to state church bio-ethics, development policy, foreign and security policy.
“It is our prayer that government listens to us and abolishes such practices which are immoral and inhuman. Life comes from God and is the only one who should take it.
“We are having a problem of people who are aged and lonely and those people end up seeking for assisted suicide from these companies after finding life boring and we say this ungodly and unholy,” she said.