The idea of a happy death is one that startles and disgusts modern man. However, although that phrase is not often used today, that is what the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Donald Coggan, is to some extent considering in his Edwin Stevens lecture given to the Royal Society of Medicine. We are publishing extracts from that lecture by kind permission of the President of the Royal Society of Medicine. We have chosen those passages in the lecture which discuss the limits (...) of the doctor's responsibility to keep a patient alive, the erroneous idea that Christians believe in the artificial prolongation of life in all circumstances, and the most delicate question of the choice of patients who shall receive the costly benefits of modern medical technology. (shrink)