TESTIMONY: "On the End of Life Options Act"

Testimony:

HB1283

House Judiciary Committee

The Rev. David Grishaw-Jones

Pastor, Community Church of Durham,

United Church of Christ

February 7, 2024

Good morning, I am the Rev. David Grishaw-Jones.  I live in Portsmouth, and I serve as pastor to the Community Church of Durham, a dynamic Christian congregation of the United Church of Christ.  I’m here to speak strongly in favor of HB1283.

This morning, I’m very much aware that your calling as legislators and my calling as a pastor intersect, in such an important way, in this End of Life Options Act.  It’s an important moment for you and for me.  You’re called to enact legislation that allows our neighbors and friends to live generous, free and self-directed lives in New Hampshire.  And I’m called to provide spiritual support, tender care, loving counsel, to those who are suffering, to those who are dying, and to the families who love them.  I cherish this opportunity to collaborate with you in making New Hampshire a more compassionate place, and equipping those who suffer with the resources and dignity they deserve in making huge decisions around the end of their lives.

My friend Bob James

I am deeply moved by the thoughtful way in which this Act has been drafted and the careful way in which it protects our people and communities against abuse.  Instead, it builds on the experience of our neighbors in Maine, Vermont and elsewhere, allowing capable adults to work with licensed medical providers to alleviate a measure of their own suffering in an ethical and compassionate way.  As a person of faith myself, I can offer this: that we are created in God’s image to build relationships of trust, and to care for one another in times of trial, and to make difficult but faithful choices about suffering and how we respond to it.  Quite simply, this is what it means to be created in God’s image.  And the End of Life Options Act makes it more possible for New Hampshire friends—like those I serve in Durham—to do just this.  To discern their own path.  To honor their own wisdom.  And to make faithful choices.  

Lastly I will say that I have served in churches in several states across the country.  And I have worked and prayed with dear ones who have made prayerful use of similar legislation, at the end of their lives, and in the midst of terminal illness.  I have also worked and prayed with dear ones here—who have not had access to the same.  And with these beloved friends in mind, and their generous, wise and devoted families, I urge you to pass the End of Life Options Act, and to make it possible for our friends in New Hampshire to face their final days with dignity and spirit, in the loving assurance that they are respected and honored for their wisdom and discernment.

You have an extraordinary opportunity in this matter.  And I wish you well.

Thank you.