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CLAIM:
Assistance in dying is a merciful way for people to hold on to dignity as they see their quality of life disappear.

REBUTTAL:

“If you are the Son of God,” he [Satan to Jesus] said, “throw yourself down. For it is written…” (Matthew 4:6)

I have been involved with life issues for nearly fifty years. It has probably taken me that long to realize that misrepresentation often paves the path to sin.

It began in Eden. Satan, in the form of a serpent, used the words of God to misrepresent God (Genesis 3:1). In tempting the Son of God, he again invokes God’s word in three temptations, and in each one, he misrepresents God’s intent.

With each retort to Satan’s temptations, Jesus recalibrated the misrepresentations:

• We live on the word of God (Matthew 4:4)
• We do not test God (Matthew 4:7)
• We worship only God (Matthew 4:10).

Using “quality of life” arguments to advocate for assisted suicide misrepresents the perspective God wants us to have on the quality of life.

God’s word calls on us to improve the quality of life for others as a primary focus (Matthew 22:39; Philippians 2:3-5). We can do this in many ways. The Biblical examples are wonderfully simple to understand:

• Care for those in hardship (Matthew 25:35-40; Galatians 6:2)
• Share our prosperity (Hebrews 13:16; 1 John 3:17)
• Sacrifice for the sake of others (John 15:13; Ephesians 5:2)

This has happened in some incredible ways:

• We brought toilets into the house.
• We sleep in padded comfort.
• We climate-control our homes and vehicles.
• We illuminate at the flip of a switch.
• We can travel the world in a day.
• We access information with a few keystrokes.
• We optimize resources to accomplish good for others.
• We take pills to alleviate.
• We sedate to operate.

These represent contemporary and cultural innovations based on Biblical injunctions that simultaneously improve the quality of life for others and our own lives.

Such blessings that improve our quality of life are quickly twisted by our sinful inclinations (Genesis 8:21; Romans 8:7). We are tempted to believe that what comes as blessings are entitlements, and we carelessly misinterpret their significance (Revelation 3:17). Satan’s technique of deception continues and has been refined by millennia of practice.

When the Old Testament believer Job encountered great hardship, he maintained his perspective:

At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” (Job 1:20–21)

The Apostle Paul described that perspective this way:

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. (Philippians 4:12)

The contemporary satanic misrepresentation is that quality-of-life blessings are entitlements that often shift our focus to the present and this world and away from eternity and heaven. By making that change in focus, we are challenged to disobey the One who blesses and has forbidden murder – and self-murder.

The word of God is transparent about changes in our physical quality of life as we age (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7; Psalm 71:9). That same word of God provides a better perspective on these changes in the light of eternity. The Apostle Paul wrote:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18)

This was not an isolated New Testament comfort for God’s people. In the Old Testament, that hope was communicated to God’s people through the prophet Isaiah:

Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. (Isaiah 46:4)

And as Job experienced miserable health and the prospect of physical death, he pronounced confidently:

I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; (Job 19:25–26)

In a world infected by sin, the quality of life ebbs and flows with opportunities, challenges, successes, failures, pleasures, and pains. For God’s people, however, it is all incredibly engineered to work for our good (Romans 8:28).

As we approach the end of life and experience its gradual loss of quality, the compulsion for God’s people is not to kill but to care. It is not to terminate but to endure. It is not to self-focus but to remain focused on serving God and others. Changes in our quality of life only change how we do this. Whereas in our best of times, we could be proactive, helping others, working to alleviate hardship and suffering, in our worst of times, it might simply be to put faith on display. When we are most helpless, it is then that faith shines (Psalm 46:10; 2 Corinthians 12:9).

It is not merciful to assist anyone in challenging God at the end of life. Dignity in life is focused on the things of life. Dignity before God focuses on him and his will.

We show dignity and respect for life at its worst when it calls upon us to love as Christ loved us. We sacrifice as he sacrificed for us. We serve as he served us.

Quality of life arguments for assisted suicide are predicated on the premise that this world is the best thing to get. Nonsense. The best is yet to come!