Hans Küng considering suicide

The Swiss theologian Fr Hans Küng, 85, has said he may seek help to take his own life as he becomes increasingly debilitated by a degenerative illness, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt.

In the third and last volume of his memoirs published on 1 October in German and entitled Erlebte Menschlichkeit (which roughly translates as “Humanity Experienced”), Küng relates how he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease a year ago and also has macular degeneration (AMD). He will soon be blind, he says, and can hardly manage to write by hand any longer. “I don’t want to go on existing as a shadow of myself. Human beings have a right to die when they see no hope of continuing to live according to their very own understanding of how to go on living in a humane way,” he says. In his native Switzerland suicide organisations can offer incurably ill patients lethal medication.

Interviewed by the German daily Die Welt shortly before the book was published, Küng proudly showed his interviewers a handwritten letter from Pope Francis in Spanish thanking him for the two books Küng had sent him. He also showed the envelope addressed to Küng in the Pope’s own handwriting with the Pope’s address and the simple letter F on the back of the envelope. He would be “happy” to read Küng’s two books, Pope Francis wrote.