Ministers are debating the implications of assisted suicide in light of revamped proposals to legalise the practice.
Two Church of Scotland ministers said they both approach the issue with compassion, but arrived at different conclusions.
The attempt to change the law in Scotland is being made by Margo MacDonald, an Independent MSP at Holyrood whose first attempt failed in a free vote in 2010.
She hopes to persuade the re-elected SNP Scottish Government and previous opponents to change their minds and get behind revised legislation, due to be formally lodged this spring.
Reverend Scott McKenna, minister at Mayfield Salisbury Parish Church in Edinburgh, said assisted suicide is not anti-Christian.
"My starting point is compassion," he said before taking part in the debate today, hosted by campaign group Friends at the End.
"Put yourself at the bedside of someone suffering terribly, particularly when people could have, or would have, requested help to die and been denied. Prolonging agony doesn't seem to be right."
He conceded his views are at odds with the Kirk hierarchy but said his comments have attracted a lot of support.
"Among my congregation, not everyone agrees but many, many do," he said.
"I received cards, letters and emails from all over the world after speaking about this, which is encouraging."
Death is arguably the most personal part of life, he said. "Autonomy for decisions in our lives is not selfish," he added.
"We take autonomous decisions for many things - who we marry, our jobs, having children."
But Reverend Sally Foster-Fulton, associate minister of Dunblane Cathedral and who convenes the Kirk's Church and Society Council, said Mr McKenna's argument relies on an "autonomy myth".
She said: "We live in communities and we are concerned for the impact on the most vulnerable in our society."
Despite the difference of opinion, she said the Kirk is a broad church capable of tolerating both views.
"I represent, as does Scott, the compassionate Church of Scotland," she said.
"We are coming to this from the same place but arrive at different places."
Opinion appears to be split on whether assisted suicide should be legalised, according to responses to a consultation on Ms MacDonald's Bill, published in November.
Interpretation of "substantive" responses by individuals and organisations suggests 59% are in favour and 35% are opposed, while 6% are neutral.
The overall result of all 848 responses, which included a letter-writing campaign against the plan, changes the balance with two-thirds opposed and one-third in support.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article