Rev. Robert Fleischmann, National Director, Christian Life Resources
Christians make mistakes. Consider these two quotes:
When people’s sufferings are so great that they make repeated requests to die, it seems a denial of that loving compassion which is supposed to be the hallmark of Christianity to refuse their requests.
If you consider God the master of your fate, then read no further. Seek the best pain management available and arrange hospice care.
The first quote is from Paul Badham, speaking in favor of assisted suicide. The second quote is from Derek Humphry, who devoted most of his life to the legalization of assisted suicide. Badham is a professed Christian. Humphry was a professed atheist.
Again, Christians make mistakes.
The Distinctive Nature of “Assisted” Suicide
Unlike “suicide,” which is a person’s unaided activity to kill himself, “assisted” suicide means someone helps. How someone helps has evolved over the years.
The most common version of assisted suicide is “physician assisted suicide,” which looks to medical professionals to play an active role in helping someone end their life. This assistance typically involves prescribing lethal doses of medication and instructing a patient how to use that medication effectively to cause the easiest death.
Other forms of assisted suicide look beyond the medical profession. This could include “death doulas” who specialize in assisting with death but are not doctors or nurses. It could consist of organizations that make self-killing equipment or operate “death spas” where someone goes to be supported when they end their life. “Assisted” suicide can also mean a family member or friend who mixes the potion, sets up the termination equipment, or transports the patient to a death spa.
The Shallow View for Assisted Suicide
Most of the public rhetoric invoked for assisted suicide leans on emotional stories of hardship near the end of a person’s life. Words like “dignity,” “compassion,” “respect,” “control,” and “quality of life” are generously used. At some point in the discussion, someone will argue that we treat terminally ill animals “better” than how we treat terminally ill people.
As states advocate to legalize assisted suicide, the general public is often spoon-fed bumper-sticker slogans to obscure the full ramifications and agenda of the assisted suicide movement. The case is usually made with a touching visual, strong emotional language, and memorable slogans.
The Deeper Dive on Assisted Suicide
It is important to remember what the argument is. Like arguments for abortion rights, advocating for assisted suicide is advocating for the right to kill. With abortion, it is the right to kill an unborn child. With assisted suicide, the argument is for both the right to self-kill and permission to have help to do it. If you step outside of the emotional rhetoric, the logic presents challenges.
There is no right to suicide. I know that sounds silly. After all, how do you prosecute someone who breaks this law?
The logic is as follows:
- If there were a “right” to suicide, it would be a constitutional right.
- Constitutional rights are provided for all citizens.
- Some citizens cannot exercise their rights because of mental deficiency or age. Yet, as citizens, they still have this constitutional right. For them, their rights are exercised on their behalf by parents or legal guardians.
Advocates for assisted suicide have set out to decriminalize it. That does not make it a “right,” but it reduces or eliminates the criminal penalties. Decriminalization does not create a protected legal status or entitlement for the act.
The State’s Interest in Protecting Life
At one time, states may have had strong religious reasons for wanting to protect human life, thereby outlawing killing and suicide. I will get to the religious reasoning shortly. For now, however, the state has other interests in protecting life:
- Inherent Value to Life: Human life is valuable because it is human life. It is the bedrock of society and underscores all its hopes and aspirations.
- The Security of Society: Protecting life fosters a sense of security and trust among its citizens. This, in turn, promotes social cohesion, economic development, and cultural advancement. When individuals feel valued and protected, they are more likely to contribute positively to society.
- The Future of Society: A society that venerates and protects life ensures its future, looking ahead to new generations of people to sustain human existence.
The Autonomy Narrative
Central to the arguments in favor of assisted suicide is the notion of autonomy. Autonomy is the right to make independent decisions without coercion or external controls. It is invoked anytime someone wants to do something and does not want their neighbors, the state, or even their church to interfere.
As regards assisted suicide, autonomy is that part of the discussion in which a person feels they are entitled to terminate their own life when they are ready to go. It is an appealing argument because no one likes to be told what they can and cannot do. You hear it a lot in states where efforts are underway to legalize assisted suicide.
The Slippery Slope
The autonomy argument creates a moral “slippery slope.” Once we feel an entitlement to chart our course, make our own decisions, and do our own thing without coercion, shaming, or challenge, it becomes a one-size-fits-all argument.
Autonomy is central to the reproductive-rights efforts. Look at nontraditional marriage, gender rights, drug decriminalization, sex work, and pornography issues. At some point, advocates for these things will argue for autonomy. It is epitomized by the “My Body, My Choice” mantra that characterized the early abortion-rights movement.
Once autonomy is invoked, a new problem arises on how to draw limits, and there are always limits somewhere. You will notice many of the controversial issues of our day are related to sexual activity. There seems to be a societal consensus that a line on autonomy should be drawn when it comes to sexual relations between adults and minors and between humans and animals. For any limitations to endure, they need a higher authority. Otherwise, it just happens to be the prevailing opinion of whoever has the most votes.
The Higher Authority
We are children of God, made so by the sacrificial love of God’s son, Jesus Christ (John 1:12-13; Galatians 3:26-27). This change occurs supernaturally in us. It is not a deductive conclusion (John 6:44; 1 Corinthians 2:14). It is not payment for good work well done (Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5). Our conversion into believers and, therefore, into being God’s children is a supernatural act brought about by God the Holy Spirit (Matthew 16:16-17; Ephesians 1:13-14).
Faith is an event. You have it, or you don’t have it. The evidence can be as minuscule as a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20). Having it does not exempt us from doubts (Mark 9:24). It can appear as a very imperfect acceptance that even in death, there is life.
Once you have faith, living with it is a maturing process (Philippians 3:12-14; Hebrews 5:12-14; 2 Peter 1:5-8). Faith, properly nurtured (2 Timothy 1:6), empowers us to be bolder (2 Timothy 1:7) and enables us to do and endure things we otherwise never imagined (Job 1:18-22; Psalm 23; Romans 5:3-4; 2 Corinthians 12:10).
Again, it is a process. In moments of weakness, we can seem indistinguishable from unbelievers. We stumble and fall (Romans 7:19), so we sometimes fall for the world’s ways (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:17-20). Ideas of taking control of our closing moments of life start to sound appealing. Worldly notions like full autonomy and dignity start to preoccupy our minds. We become lured back to thinking that existence in this world is the only existence we have, and if we don’t like it, we can take control. But we are reminded:
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)
The reason we can walk through the valley of the shadow of death without fear (Psalm 23:4) and not lose ourselves in sorrow over the death of other believers (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14) is because we know that our time on earth is a time to glorify God (Isaiah 43:7; 1 Corinthians 10:31). We glorify God by doing his will (1 John 5:3; 2 John 6) and accepting his view of things (Proverbs 3:5-6; Isaiah 55:8-9; Hebrews 11:1).
When we think like the world, we fear things in and of the world. We fear death, the dying process, and for those we leave behind. When we understand that death brings life (Luke 23:43; Philippians 1:23), and God is committed to using the good and bad of life in this world for the good of his people (Romans 8:28), we take no steps to end life, understanding that at the right time, God will do it as life’s Author (Deuteronomy 32:39), and accomplish good for his children in the process.
0 Comments