When abortion was legalized in the United States, it was then predicted that within ten years euthanasia would be made legal, and infanticide would soon follow. Abortion advocates ridiculed these prophets as alarmists. But now, as we see the wheels roll past, we know that those flashing lights were sadly all too warranted. This freight train has momentum.
Herbert Hendin talks about the situation overseas in his book, Seduced by Death: Doctors, Patients, and the Dutch Cure. “The Netherlands has moved from assisted suicide to euthanasia: from euthanasia for those who are terminally ill to euthanasia for those who are chronically ill; from euthanasia for physical illness to euthanasia for psychological distress; and from voluntary euthanasia to involuntary euthanasia.”
And the laws are evolving to let it all happen. One important thing about these legal precedents is that, for the secular person, the law of the land is often the closest thing to God that he will accept. He reasons that if something is legal, then it is morally permissible, perhaps even desirable. Of course if polls and election results determine what is evil or good from week to week, there is no limit to what this generation can rationalize.
This is particularly scary when we realize that we have power brokers in the land who express their aspirations by humming along with Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead. Jerry used to tell his devotees: “There are ten commandments to rock-n-roll, and the tenth commandment is to commit suicide.” Jerry is himself now also physically dead, leaving the unanswered question, “but is he grateful?”
The Christian’s standards are not founded on the shifting sands of public opinion. We recognize a higher authority. Solomon expressed God’s sovereignty in the matter of human death in these poetic words: “[Remember your Creator] before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the well. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it” (Eccl. 12:6-7, nkj).
When the secular person denies God’s rights over his life, this does not mean he has no morality at all; he has a different set of morals. For him to experience pain may now be defined as a moral evil, especially when the pain serves no visible benefit. Therefore he might demand euthanasia on a moral basis. He argues that his health-care provider should euthanize him as part of his moral obligation to provide pain management.
By contrast, the Christian has no morbid craving for more pain in his life, or the lives of those he loves. Neither does he see pain as a moral evil. He can see pain in the perspective of God’s eternal plan, and even rejoice in his troubles (Rom. 5:3).
The secular person views the affirmation of his autonomy as a moral good. When the euthanasia advocates speak about passive euthanasia, suicide, assisted suicide, voluntary mercy killing, involuntary mercy killing, or non-voluntary mercy killing, they begin with a basic assumption that each individual needs to have a governmentally guaranteed right to determine when they die. To them the question of who has the right to end a life is too obvious to deserve a discussion.
God is not in any of their thoughts. Therefore they abominate the Christian who quotes Job’s submissive words, “Naked came I from the womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). The Christian believes that the risen Christ holds the keys to death, not you or me.
The contrasts continue. This comes home to us the moment we leave our homes. When you hand your health and well-being over to the technological possibilities of the medical profession, the straight-cut moral certainties that make so much sense to us are misplaced in a gray fog of relativism. Gone are the days of Christian consensus in the medical profession. Now we need to be bilingual when speaking with our physician. We need to know the old terms, and the new definitions.
“Doctor,” we ask, “could you define what you meant by recovery from the illness? At one time we thought words like health-care and medication were things wholesome and restorative. Will health-care professionals suggest a therapeutic option consisting of a cocktail of sedatives and lethal drugs capable of putting down an elephant, and call it taking your medication? On your next hospital visit, be sure you have all the terms well defined. Beware, your doctor may prescribe a medication.
WHAT ARE THE LESSONS?
First, know what you believe. Lois Pell was startled by a phone call after midnight and a strange woman’s voice asked, “If I killed myself, would I be in hell?”
Lois simply answered, “If you killed yourself, you would know where you were immediately, and you would never be able to change that–forever.” A long conversation ensued, with Lois speaking to the troubled soul about the importance of the Word of God and the certainty of His love for her. The next day, Lois gave the woman’s name and address to Carole Pell, her nephew’s wife, who knocked at her door and had the joy of introducing her to the One who is the Life, and holds the keys to death and hell.
Secondly, know what the medical establishment does not believe. An industry that is ordered around by financial considerations cannot be trusted to uphold your biblical convictions. An industry which likes to talk about ethics, but is noticeably vague about the foundation for those ethics, cannot be trusted as a safe moral guide.
At present, the great majority of doctors oppose euthanasia. But there are doctors in this land who have performed scores of abortions. If they have murdered healthy children with everything to live for, they have crossed a line. For them to terminate an infirm grandmother may be to them a public service. Medical confidentiality keeps us from knowing what our doctors have done to other patients. If you asked a doctor, “Have you ever euthanized a patient?” he would not tell you. But you could ask, “Would you be willing to euthanize a patient?”
Watch those signs, and don’t get stalled at the train crossing.