The Last Rites

Last weekend (on the way to the pub of all places!) my family and I found ourselves discussing the topic of the Last Rites and the benefits they may or may not bring to the recipient and the family of the recipient.

The discussion came about as my girlfriend's Grandma has recently fallen ill and is currently in hospital recovering. A few days ago, things weren't looking too good and my girlfriend's Mum arranged for the hospital chaplain to administer the Last Rites - just in case. She is an elderly Polish lady and is a devout Catholic.

              "The Last Rites - really a force for good?"


This story kind of closely mirrors a recent experience my family went through when, around a year ago, my Nan took a fall in her house and soon thereafter died from the ensuing complications. When she was in hospital and it became apparent that she may struggle to recover, my Mum and her sisters arranged for the Priest to visit and administer the Last Rites.

At this point, it might be useful to offer a little background about my Nan. Whilst not a devout Catholic herself, she raised her children to be so, perhaps recognising the role the the Church might play in raising "good" children. They (including my Mum) were encouraged to attend Sunday School and Church and were sent to a Catholic High School were prayers were said before and after lessons. The headmistress was a Nun. My Nan spoke fondly of the Church and knew the local Parish Priest personally, as the whole of our family do.

When she neared the end, she unfortunately began to suffer from incoherence and an inability to comprehend what was going on around her.

According to my Mum's own account of the situation, when the Priest began to administer the Last Rites, my Nan, far from being comforted by the process, became agitated and distressed at the situation.
To this day, my Mum is quite surprised at this as she thought that the process should have soothed and calmed my her but it actually had the opposite effect.

Before I offer my thoughts on the matter, I think it best at this point that I declare here that I'm an atheist. Further to this, I don't see the discussion of religion in a separate light to any other subject on which I have an opinion. I also believe that, as a non-believer, I am in no less of a position to comment on a religious matter than a believer. Whilst I don't believe in God, I am more than capable of understanding the impact that "He" has upon believers.

My own belief is that when we are close to death, the innate reaction within each one of us is to fight for survival. More than any other urge, emotion or feeling, we are all hard-wired to prolong our own lives. Lets call this the 'self-preservation instinct'. This is why stories of 'ultimate sacrifices' are so lauded in society - they are rare and completely contrary to how we are predisposed to behave in the light of danger.

In my opinion, the appearance of a Priest and the commencement of the Last Rites serves only to undermine the hope that the ill have in their eventual recovery (this is assuming that the person is relatively lucid/not comatose) and is contrary to a person's subconscious self-preservation instinct. Who wants someone to stand over you, acknowledging that death is close when every ounce of strength you have is trying to stave it off?

The logical counter-argument to this belief is that religion, like the self-preservation instinct, can become so ingrained in the psyche that, on one's deathbed, one is equally content to survive as to die.

I disagree with this as I believe that comparing the self-preservation instinct and the role of religion is like comparing the merits of nature versus nurture. One is genetically hard-wired in to every human and indeed every organism on the planet, the other comes through years of dogma and is 'learned'.

No doubt some good comes from the act of the Last Rites. Religious family members may be comforted in knowing that their loved one will be with God in Heaven. It would be very difficult for me to argue that this wouldn't offer some solace in their time of need.

My point is that, as the person receiving the prayers, I think that for many, this would be a stressful process.

My Dad argued that the whole process is generally considered to be a calming and tranquil act, designed to soothe and help but I question whether this is the case. Surely in order to define whether the act helped calm the recipient of the prayers, we'd have to ask them afterwards just how it made them feel?

There are, of course, a couple problems in measuring this. Firstly, many of the recipients will go on to die after receiving the prayers and so can't be asked. Secondly, I would hazard a guess that it would perhaps not be fair to ask someone on their deathbed whether the Last Rites helped them to come to terms with their impending death if they are lucid enough to be asked. Finally, even if someone recovers and is then asked how receiving the Last Rites made them feel, they are likely to respond in a biased manner since they have recovered and may attribute this to God.

Clearly it's actually quite difficult to quantify the benefit of giving/receiving the Last Rites and it's left to us to take the Church's word that it does. I'm in the habit of making decisions and forming opinions based on facts rather than superstition or custom so when my time comes, can someone please make sure that the guy in the robe isn't allowed in? Thanks.