Patient-Assisted Suicide
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On June 17, 2016, the federal government passed Bill C-14 -MAID.
2015 Gallup poll, 69 percent of Americans say doctors should be legally allowed to end a patient’s life if the patient wants it. That means that at least 40 percent of self-identified Christians believe
-Dying with dignity. Right-to-die movement.
Made famous by Jack Kevorkian. His first public assisted suicide, of Janet Adkins, a 54-year-old woman diagnosed in 1989 with Alzheimer's disease, took place in 1990.
Assisted >130 patients in dying.
-We live in a culture of death. Abortion.
Terminology.
Suicide: the act or an instance of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally.
Euthanasia: the act or practice of killing hopelessly sick individual in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy
Euthanasia: the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (such as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy
Medical Assistance in Dying/ Patient- Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia: involves a medical doctor who gives a terminally ill patient the means to commit suicide, usually by an overdose of prescription medication.
Subtle difference.
-The attitude that, “I’d rather die than be dependent on someone else” sends a larger message that life only has value if it’s independent of others.
- It’s a message that is heard often loud and clear by the elderly, infirm and disabled who need and deserve our care, and do not want assisted suicide.
-Physician-assisted suicide sends the message that some lives are not worth living.
Questions.
Do we have moral authority to end our own life?
Are we willing to surrender to our Creator the specifics of how and when we die?
How much do we actually trust him with our final days?
This is a hot topic, a culturally-relevant issue but we must not forget it is a moral matter. we have to examine Scripture to provide for us direction on this matter, not the cultural trend.
Western civilization has long considered suicide morally wrong based on the belief that human life is a gift from God — regardless of its circumstances. Life itself has purpose and value.
The Hippocratic Oath, originating in 400 B.C., and the standard for medical practice ever since, states,
Death is the enemy not the friend, or solution.
God told Israel to choose life.
The Hippocratic Oath, originating in 400 B.C., and the standard for medical practice ever since, states,
- It’s a message that is heard often loud and clear by the elderly, infirm and disabled who need and deserve our care, and do not want assisted suicide.
-Physician-assisted suicide sends the message that some lives are not worth living.
Western civilization has long considered suicide morally wrong based on the belief that human life is a gift from God — regardless of its circumstances. Life itself has purpose and value.
The Hippocratic Oath, originating in 400 B.C., and the standard for medical practice ever since, states,
“I will keep [the sick] from harm and injustice. I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to that effect.”
The Hippocratic Oath, originating in 400 B.C., and the standard for medical practice ever since, states, “I will keep [the sick] from harm and injustice. I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to that effect.”
Death is the enemy not the friend, or solution.
God told Israel to choose life.
A biblical example.
A biblical example.
Right-to-die
Made famous by Jack Kevorkian
We live in a culture of death. Abortion.
God told Israel to choose life.
Medical Assistance in Dying
Why?
Made famous by Jack Kevorkian
-The attitude that, “I’d rather die than be dependent on someone else” sends a larger message that life only has value if it’s independent of others.
- It’s a message that is heard often loud and clear by the elderly, infirm and disabled who need and deserve our care, and do not want assisted suicide.
-Physician-assisted suicide sends the message that some lives are not worth living.
A biblical example.
A biblical example.
There is an account of reported voluntary euthanasia involving King Saul and an Amalekite (). The unnamed Amalekite tells King David that he killed Saul at Saul's request, as Saul was wounded in battle. David's response is to kill the Amalekite for touching God's anointed. If euthanasia were a beneficial practice, David would have rewarded the Amalekite, not sentenced him to death.
There is an account of reported voluntary euthanasia (in which one person asks another to kill them, ostensibly in order to alleviate the first person's suffering) involving King Saul and an Amalekite (). The unnamed Amalekite tells King David that he killed Saul at Saul's request, as Saul was wounded in battle. David's response is to kill the Amalekite for touching God's anointed. If euthanasia were a beneficial practice, David would have rewarded the Amalekite, not sentenced him to death.
There is an account of reported voluntary euthanasia (in which one person asks another to kill them, ostensibly in order to alleviate the first person's suffering) involving King Saul and an Amalekite (). The unnamed Amalekite tells King David that he killed Saul at Saul's request, as Saul was wounded in battle. David's response is to kill the Amalekite for touching God's anointed. If euthanasia were a beneficial practice, David would have rewarded the Amalekite, not sentenced him to death.
Reasons against.
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent.” Steve Jobs
“change agent,” the trial that tested our faith, reset our priorities, and forced us into deeper communion with God and our community.
Reasons against.
Reasons against.
Scripture:
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
refers to the body of Christ.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.
For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
Reasons against.
Reasons against.
1. We were created in the image of God.
1. We were created in the image of God.
Life is sacred.
God made man in His likeness and image.
- fearfully and wonderfully made.
2. God is the Sovereign over life
2. God is the Sovereign over life
God is the Sovereign Giver, Creator of Life
-Creator, Giver, Sustainer.
“ ‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
3. To assist in suicide is to commit murder.
3. To assist in suicide is to commit murder.
“You shall not murder.
4. God’s purposes are beyond our understanding.
4. God’s purposes are beyond our understanding.
His ways are higher than our ways.
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent.” Steve Jobs
“change agent,” the trial that tested our faith, reset our priorities, and forced us into deeper communion with God and our community.
5. Our bodies belong to God
5. Our bodies belong to God
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
refers to the body of Christ.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
6. Suffering draws us closer to God.
6. Suffering draws us closer to God.
For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.
For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.
Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.
Steve Jobs, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2011, shared this wisdom at a commencement speech at Stanford University:
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent.” Steve Jobs
“change agent,” the trial that tested our faith, reset our priorities, and forced us into deeper communion with God and our community.
7. False sense of compassion
7. False sense of compassion
False sense of compassion
Pope Francis observes, assisted suicide gives us a “false sense of compassion.” Choosing suicide at any point is the same sin Adam and Eve committed in the garden: the pride of wanting to be God, not simply to serve him.
True compassion is surrounding a terminal patient with love, support, and palliative care. In many countries, end-of-life suffering is minimized thanks to readily available hospice care.
Dr. Thomas Beam, chairman of the Medical Ethics Commission of the Christian Medical and Dental Society points out, “While the act of physician-assisted suicide seems compassionate on the surface, it is often the abandonment of the patient in their most needy time. Instead of support, the patient may only find confirmation of the hopelessness of their condition and physician-assisted suicide is legitimized as the only ‘way.’”
Conc.
For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.
For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his saints.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
False sense of compassion
But as Pope Francis observes, assisted suicide gives us a “false sense of compassion.” Choosing suicide at any point is the same sin Adam and Eve committed in the garden: the pride of wanting to be God, not simply to serve him. True compassion is surrounding a terminal patient with love, support, and palliative care. In many countries, end-of-life suffering is minimized thanks to readily available hospice care.
But as Pope Francis observes, assisted suicide gives us a “false sense of compassion.” Choosing suicide at any point is the same sin Adam and Eve committed in the garden: the pride of wanting to be God, not simply to serve him. True compassion is surrounding a terminal patient with love, support, and palliative care. In many countries, end-of-life suffering is minimized thanks to readily available hospice care.
Dr. Thomas Beam, chairman of the Medical Ethics Commission of the Christian Medical and Dental Society points out, “While the act of physician-assisted suicide seems compassionate on the surface, it is often the abandonment of the patient in their most needy time. Instead of support, the patient may only find confirmation of the hopelessness of their condition and physician-assisted suicide is legitimized as the only ‘way.’”
Assisted Suicide and Real Death with Dignity
Assisted Suicide and Real Death with Dignity
Advocates say that choosing when we die is a fundamental right. My late husband thought otherwise.KIM KUO| SEPTEMBER 15, 2015
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/september/assisted-suicide-and-real-death-with-dignity.html?start=4
https://bible.org/article/euthanasia-battle-life
http://www.focusonthefamily.com/socialissues/life-issues/physician-assisted-suicide/questions-and-answers-about-physician-assisted-suicide