(LIFE NEWS) – A Canadian church has hosted an assisted suicide ceremony for one of its members. The Churchill Park United Church of Winnipeg held what it described as a “Crossing Over Ceremony” in which an 86 year old, Betty Sanguin, ended her life through an assisted suicide in the church sanctuary.
Minister of Churchill Park, Rev. Dawn Rolke, said that it “seemed appropriate” to hold the ceremony in the sanctuary, as churches are often “host and home to all the raggedness of our lives and to some of our significant life rituals: baptism, marriage, ordination, funeral or memorial services”.
“For us, it was perfectly natural to hold this service for Betty in our sanctuary because death is a natural part of life and Betty had lived a good part of her adulthood in this faith community.”