Medical Assistance in Dying

Background to passage: This passage falls in a portion of the book where Solomon is dealing with the will of God and the futility of the wisdom of man to understand it. Not only is he not able the understand it, he doesn’t even know it. It is a fairly complex section of the book. The couple of verses today are dealing with God’s authority in death.

Ecclesiastes 8:6–8 ESV

6 For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him. 7 For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? 8 No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it.

Genesis 1:26–27 ESV

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:31 ESV

31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Opening illustration: “New York’s legislature embraces every progressive cause, and the latest is making it easier for people to kill themselves. The state senate voted 35 to 27 to pass the Medical Aid in Dying Act, and let’s hope that Governor Kathy Hochul has the courage to veto it for the sake of society’s most vulnerable. They then go on to remind us of this, “One irony is that New York passed the first US law that banned assisted death in 1828, but times and morals have changed. Life itself is less valued today than a life that is supposedly worth living. For Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, this means being allowed to ‘end unbearable suffering.’ 11 states and the District of Columbia have legalized assisted suicide since 1997...“A healthy society treasures the value of life and helps people manage inevitable decline and death with care and dignity. It doesn’t abdicate that responsibility by helping them kill themselves instead...” “Life itself is less valued today than a life that is supposedly worth living,” -WSJ Editorial Board, June 2025

Main thought: This is an issue of major concern, but little discussion down here where it seems so foreign and far away. It’s coming. Our good intentions and compassion can potentially take us where we should not be.

1) Biblical Principles (v. 7-8)

Ecclesiastes 8:7–8 ESV

7 For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? 8 No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it.

1) Biblical Principles (v. 7-8)

The image of God in man. Destroying the image of God is always murder. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Roman Catholic Cardinal Archbishop of New York, in a piece that was published in the major media in recent days entitled Prevent Don’t Assist Suicide. He mentions the incongruity indeed, the moral insanity of a society that has hotlines to try to talk people out of committing suicide. At the same time, you have a legislator saying, “No, go right ahead.” Here’s what he said, “I am more than puzzled. I’m stunned when I read that New York lawmakers are on the verge of legalizing suicide, not by leaping from a bridge but by a poison cocktail easily provided by physicians and pharmacists.” He says, “I can’t help but shake my head in disbelief at the disparity in official responses. Our government will marshal all its resources to save the life of one hopeless and despondent man.” He speaks of someone threatening to jump from a bridge. He goes on to say, “Yet, it may conclude that some lives aren’t worth living perhaps due to a serious illness or disability, and we will hand those despondent women and men a proverbial loaded gun and tell them to have at it.”

The sovereignty of God over life and death, Author and Finisher, creates and destroys

2) Possible Deceptions

Bodily autonomy is not ultimate, does not necessarily dignify, honor, or sanctify. Bodily autonomy always has reasonable limits. It does not mean freedom from everything.

Suffering is not to be avoided at all costs. Compassion for it doesn’t justify immoral actions. “The phrase I find myself saying a lot is I’m not going to judge people for why they’re suffering.” “In some jurisdictions, you have to meet specific criteria for suffering, and I think it’s good that in Canada, you don’t. I don’t particularly care why you’re suffering. If you tell me that you’re suffering, who am I to question that?” -NYT writer interviewing a person in NY regarding the law.

3) Possible Complications and Consequences

Oncologists, neurologists, and cardiologists in general don’t like to give timelines for death. It’s better to under promise and over deliver. Statistically predictions of death are inaccurate.

Psychiatry and psychological diagnoses are subjective. They are evaluation of feelings by professionals, and actions that flow from these feelings. Easy to say the right things to manipulate the diagnosis.

18 and over will come under fire when the first 17 yr old brings a court case

Physical pain, suffering, and death will come to include psychological as a justification

Voluntary is never truly voluntary. There are always forces, people, institutions, businesses, insurance companies, socialized medicine, money that influence to various levels of coercion. These can be cost control measures for families, govs, providers, ins, “In a for-profit healthcare system, assisted suicide is a lethal way to control costs.” -The Center for Disability Rights

Elderly, poor, uneducated, isolated, mentally ill, and physically disabled will be at risk

4) Pastoral Caveats

These things are difficult. We must prepare before we get to a situation.

By and large this issue is not the same in a hospital setting.

There is a distinction between active and passive death.

Suicide does not send people to hell. Not trusting in Jesus does.

Most of these laws are intended to protect medical professionals from legal consequences.

Closing illustration: 2016. It is known as the Coffee Case. In that situation, there was a 74-year-old woman who as she knew she was going into dementia, wanted assisted suicide, physician-assisted death and arranged for it. But when it was actually the time according to her family and even to at least something she had given in the advance directive that this should be the time when her desk should be brought about, even as she was given a certain preparatory sedative in her coffee, that’s why it’s known as the coffee case, when those who were seeking to bring about her assisted suicide, her physician-assisted death went to actually inject the chemicals that would bring about her death, she fought back, and even as the New York Times acknowledges, members of her family had to hold her down for the death pharmaceuticals to be injected in her.