Death is a great enemy for all of us. To know a 29-year-old woman is suffering gravely with terminal cancer is to recognize she and other human beings have experienced pain most of us cannot identify with or have not experienced yet. We should grieve for her, her widowed husband and her other family members. But should we -- as those who follow Christ and seek to live under the authority of God's Word -- affirm assisted suicide as an appropriate alternative for a human being or a wise policy option for a society?
No!
Here are four reasons I believe we should oppose the "right-to-die" or "death-with-dignity" movement. I write, of course, from an intentionally Christian perspective for Christians, but I believe these truths are important for a society as well. It is vital we, as God's people, think biblically about this critical issue.
(1) The "right to die" -- manifested in assisted suicide and, in countries where it is legal, euthanasia -- violates the sanctity of human life. The biblical perspective is that each human being is made in the image of God and has intrinsic worth from conception until natural death. Interfering in that continuum at any point -- whether in another's life or your own -- is to contravene that sacred truth. Every human life is worthwhile, no matter its age or condition.
(2) The "right to die" defies God's sovereign rule. The Creator is also the Sustainer and Controller. He has made each person in His image. As Creator, only He has the right to determine when a person's life ends. When a person seeks to kill himself, he seeks -- maybe unknowingly -- to wrest control from God; he seeks to throw off God's rule; he seeks to exercise his self-rule in the face of the one true Ruler.
The day before Brittany Maynard's suicide, John Piper wrote this for Christians: "Not only do our lives belong to God by virtue of being created in his image, but now we are his — in life and death — by virtue of the purchase of Christ. We are doubly not our own. Our life and our death belong to God. He gives, and he takes. And he has put a double seal on that unique divine right: You are mine, by birth and by blood. You do not live, and you do not die, on your own terms." (You can read his entire post here.)
(3) The "right to die" undermines a society's responsibility to protect human life. We don't typically enact laws that give permission for an individual to kill someone, even himself. The unspoken, but inferred, message of the "right-to-die" movement is -- some lives are not worth living. In Western Civilization, we thought we buried that wicked ideology in the grave of Nazi Germany. It has been resuscitated, however, and is gaining acceptance in our day.
(4) The "right to die" too easily becomes the requirement to die. This can happen as a society with an aging population becomes more accepting of assisted suicide. This can happen as a government facing declining resources struggles to meet health-care challenges, especially for the elderly and infirmed. This can happen as family members recognize the cost to them of caring for the aged and terminally ill. As the "right to die" takes root and spreads its poisonous vines, the expectation grows that the terminally ill, disabled, infirm and elderly will recognize their responsibility to family and society and choose assisted suicide. Some European countries are ahead of us in this regard. Assisted suicide has given way there to euthanasia, even involuntary euthanasia -- even on disabled newborns.
How should we respond as those rescued by the One who conquered death? Here are three recommendations, briefly mentioned in this case:
-- Oppose government efforts to legalize assisted suicide.
-- Promote the kind of pain management by caring health-care professionals that alleviates suffering.
-- Be the church, the caring community that presents biblical truth while serving people as they suffer.
* -- Photo source.
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