This has been much in my thoughts this week.

Paul Lamb pleading for the right to die with dignity having lived for the best part of 20 years paralysed from the neck down and feeling his life to be without value.

Martin Richard, the eight year old boy killed in the Boston Marathon bombing – a young life snatched cruelly away at the whim of some other person.

How do we view the gift of life? Is it “ours” and so we can start life – either naturally or with scientific assistance – as and when we please, and end in a similar fashion; or is it truly a gift and therefore to be treasured above all things and only started or removed when the “giver” chooses? How do we feel for Paul Lamb who wants the opportunity to die when he chooses? How will we feel for the people who caused Martin Richard’s brutal and unnecessary death? Will we want to end their lives?

A torrent of emotion surrounds all discussion of these matters and there are certainly no easy answers.

God, we read in the Bible, deals with his world and the creatures in it not with judgement but with mercy and compassion. Maybe in all our deliberations about these matters of great significance mercy and compassion should be at the front of our minds too.