Having the freedom to make choices without interference feels like good public policy. It mitigates the ideological differences among the citizenries.

Consider how it plays out:

Advocates for drug legalization argue that individuals should make their own choices about their bodies and the substances they consume as long as those choices do not harm others.

It is the same argument used to legalize prostitution — two individuals doing what they want to do.

For decades, abortion advocates have chanted the “My body, my choice” mantra, arguing that it is a private choice about what a woman wants for her body.

It is the same central mentality in arguing for the right to suicide and assisted suicide.

Choices always have consequences.

Jesus warned, “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). The Greek word for “wickedness” means “without law” or lawlessness. The word for “love” is agape, which includes unrequited commitment, a willingness to do for others without expectation of reward or gratitude. To “grow cold” literally means to cool down or chill.

Think about what Jesus said. Before people sought “self-rule,” they were committed to others. By demanding autonomy to do what they wished, the collateral effect was that their love for others grew cold. No longer were the needs of others placed ahead of their own (Philippians 2:3-5). Their primary commitment was (and still is) to themselves.

Autonomy leaves victims.

Sometimes victims are apparent. In abortion, it is the unborn child, the child’s biological father, or grandparents who have no voice in the decision. In drug and prostitution legalization, it is the overdosed user who could not control the impulses or the prostitute unable to escape the unwanted advance.

But these are obvious examples.

When a culture accepts abortion on demand, it fosters a worldview that some lives are expendable. When that same culture buys into the notion that people should be allowed to end their lives whenever they wish, it creates a culture that suggests some lives should end because they are useless, unwanted, or unneeded.

The story of the Canadian man who marketed suicide kits shows how he plays into this new “self-control” culture. People want to control everything, including their death. The man claims he helped others and, in his mind, happened to earn an honest living at it.

Think about the culture shift. Sometimes it is the depressed widow, the sickly cancer patient, or a distraught teenager who wants to end it all. When culture says it is one’s right to end their life, where is the line drawn?

Laws reflect what is going on in the heart. They do not change the heart. Christians must see that autonomy arguments endanger everyone for the culture it creates. There is a chill in the air, and those who need the greatest help will be the first to go. And there will always be someone ready to profit from it.