Episode 191: NWA Day 3

Just got back from the beach again. We were going to throw someone into the water because it's his birthday. Well, he sort of offered to jump in in the first place, but the tide was coming in and it looked too dangerous, so we all ended up on the rocks instead, watching the stars. I did make it to the seminar on medical ethics this time, which covered euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide today. It was quite useful, actually helped me to clarify my position on the issue. I used to be more of less in favour of it, but having seen the arguments presented on both sides within a Christian framework, I've changed my mind. Picked up a load of handouts from the Christian Medical Fellowship too, covering a range of ethical issues. It's interesting to see what the Biblical response is when it comes to contemporary issues of medical ethics. I think the most important thing I picked up was that in the Bible, murder is specifically defined as the intentional taking away of an innocent human being's life, the key words being 'intentional' and 'innocent'. Was so curious about the whole Christian ethical perspective that I wound up back at the caravan, reading the CMF Files rather than attending another seminar in the afternoon. Although I'm never going to be a medical doctor, I'm still keen on working out these ethical dilemmas for myself. After the evening celebration, Israel and I went to see a one-man enactment of the gospel of Mark. It was an incredible performance, although I was a bit perplexed by the ending, until I remembered that in certain manuscripts, the last couple of verses of Mark don't appear, so I suppose there was some justification for ending his performance at that point, with the women running from the empty tomb.