Different religions have different positions on death and dying, and in cases where there is a legal dispute, often the courts will turn to the person's individual religious beliefs to determine the wishes of people who are unable to speak for themselves. So it seems logical that the Church of Reality should have some official guidelines so that if the outside world turns to the individual's religious beliefs we have a response.

When does death occur? Who gets to decide? When do you remove a person from life support? When do you assist a person in terminating life? What are the roles of individuals, their spouses, their children, their family, their church, and the government? The Church of Reality cannot answer these questions, but we can create guidelines and principles to come up with these answers and that is what we choose to do here.

Issues surrounding death and dying can become complex, especially in a society that is in denial. Sometimes people are trapped in a permanent vegetative state. Sometimes they are still alive and facing a horrible death. Sometimes they are clearly alive but face an uphill battle that they don't want to go through. Science and technology offer new choices, and, because of that, often complicate the situation allowing the body to remain alive long after death would naturally occur. Therefore it is difficult to create hard and fast rules for dying. We therefore will state general principles from which rules can be derived.

• Every Death is Unique - Every death is individual and unique. Rules and policies around death should be flexible to accommodate the wishes of the dying person and the person's family.


• Wisdom should Prevail - In complex situations the individuals involved should take the time to think things through and make a determination based on the circumstances rather than just citing policy. Where there is conflict, efforts should be made to achieve resolution. New situations should be carefully considered in determining the ethics involved and the rules and policies that preserve the rights and liberties of the patient and the family.


• The Patient has Choice - The wishes of the dying come first. The Church of Reality supports the right of the patient to choose how and when they are going to die. If the patient wants to be euthanized or wants to be fully awake until their last breath, their choice should be honored.


• Suicide and Doctor Assisted Suicide - If a person is terminally ill or is in a hospice program and doctors have determined that they have a short time to live, then the individual has the right to determine when and how their life will end. If they decide to end their life, then that decision should be honored and they should be allowed to have help in terminating their life from their doctors and their family. No one should be pressured into ending their own life.


• Who Speaks for the Patient? - If the wishes of the individual are not known and the individual patient cannot express them, then it is up to family members to express what the individual would have wanted. The wishes of the family take precedent over anyone else except for the individual.


• Living Wills - Members of the Church of Reality should have living wills and they should also make their wishes known to their friends and family so that their wishes are clear. That way other people won't have to guess as to what you would have wanted.


• A person is dead when - they have lost consciousness with no reasonable chance of recovery. Although one might be declared legally dead, later when the body dies, a person's last moment is the last moment that they were conscious. If you are brain dead, you are dead.


• Other Religions to Stay Out - Realists have a right to their own religious choices regarding end of life decisions and free from the imposition of beliefs of other religions and cultures. It infringes on our religious freedom when another religion or the government tries to impose their values on us against our will. Our rights to our religious choices are superior to foreign beliefs or laws that infringe on our end of life freedoms.

We live in a time when the body can be kept alive after the mind has died. Technology can make the line between life and death fuzzy, and we are sometimes faced with making tough choices concerning whether a person is really dead or alive. However, what is it that makes a person a person? Is the person still alive if even a few cells are still alive? Technically yes, but, in reality, no. It is the brain activity, specifically the higher brain functions, that define the line between life and death. In the Church of Reality, when you have lost consciousness, with no reasonable chance of recovery, you are dead. To exist as a living corpse is not considered being alive.

In the Church of Reality, you are your brain. It is your awareness that makes you who you are and from that awareness you experience life as a person. If you are brain dead but the body is kept alive artificially, then the body isn't really you.

We believe that death occurs at the point when the higher brain functions permanently end.

The Church of Reality also recognizes personal choice to help resolve issues when one is within the fuzzy line between life and death. Some people want to hang on as long as there is any chance at all. Some people want to be allowed to let go when the fight to stay alive becomes more painful than they can bear. Some people don't want to be alive if their mind is so damaged that they will have to live a hellish half-life should they be kept alive. A person might choose that half a life isn't enough. Others might decide that any hope is plenty to continue the fight for a recovery.

The term "suicide" is really the wrong term to use in ending the life of a dying patient because this kind of deliberate death is far different from otherwise healthy people who kill themselves out of depression. When people approach death, the only question is how and when. It is the position of this Church that the individual gets to make that choice.

We err on the side of choice. Life choices are up to each individual to make.

There is no moral difference between euthanasia and withholding or removing life support. To passively kill someone and to actively kill someone is the same thing.

The Church of Reality takes the position that the life choices of the individual should be protected against external intervention from government, other religions, and political opportunists who would victimize the dying and take away the right to choose from the individual and their family. We take the position that no groups or political processes should be able to impose their values, interfere with, or override the choices of the individual and the family. Our position is that the role of government is only to protect the individual's rights and choices.

Our religion and our choices are different than those of other religions that sometimes feel they need to impose their values on us. We say to them, stay out! We respect your death choices, and we expect our choices to be honored by you as well.

There is also a condition that is slightly above brain death where there is some level of consciousness but an inability to communicate. Some people might choose to end their lives when they are permanently incapacitated. Many of these people choose to live and to do the best with what they have left. Others might decide that their pain and suffering is more than they can deal with and choose not to continue.

The position of the Church of Reality is that the individual gets to make that choice. If the individual can't make that choice or can't communicate, then it is the right of the individual's family to make the choice on behalf of the patient. A severe permanent mental disability might be a fate that is far worse that a permanent vegetative state or death. It is important that we don't put someone in a state of perpetual torture from which there is no escape.

There is a very complex issue as to how much we, as a society, should spend in order to prolong life. Some might say that society should spend an unlimited about of money to save a person's life. However, if those same resources were used to pay for medicine for the elderly poor, then more lives could be saved. These issues need to be addressed with wisdom and a sense of social justice. I have a real problem with the fact that society wastes vast amounts of resources in a hopeless battle to keep some people alive when others are allowed to starve to death in economically depressed areas, where it would only take a small amount of resources to sustain them. I also have a problem with the idea that an insurance company should determine the point when death occurs, or that death occurs when the money runs out.

Although we want to prevent people from killing themselves out of stress or depression and to do everything we can do to take care of each other, the Church of Reality takes the position that a person ultimately has the right to decide to end their own life. Suicide is tragic and is often preventable, often easily preventable. However the principle of personal control over one's own destiny is something that this church considers to be a sacred right, and individuals get to make the important choices in their lives, even if those choices are bad choices.

Having said that, we are one people, one race, and each of us is a part of us all. We live both as individuals and as a community. When an individual has needs, it is a problem that we all share. As members of the Church of Reality, we have a moral duty to actively reach out and help prevent suicide and give care and compassion for those who are hurting and in need of support.

Google is the afterlife in the Church of Reality. Your immortality can be crudely assessed by the number of online articles about you 100 years after you die.