Assisted Suicide

Assisted Suicide

Three letters in today’s Independent newspaper are calling for a change of our laws that would allow assisted suicide. One thinks we should have the right to choose. Another reasons that people should not have to suffer and the third applauds Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act.

Suicide is certainly not a new concept. Every day in America a number of citizens will commit suicide. Everyone agrees that suffering is bad and that every effort should be made to help alleviate the pain of those who suffer. The real question is whether the state should institute laws allowing assisted suicide?

For those determined to end their lives, no law is needed. The means of suicide are many and available to all.
Under the care of a competent doctor no one should have to suffer excruciating pain even when dying of cancer, etc.
While “Death with Dignity” sounds pleasant to our ears, it is a rare phenomenon. Death by its very nature is not a pretty or dignified experience. The best way to assure that you will die with dignity is to have lived with dignity. Modern Americans are not concerned about being tortured to death, burned at the stake, drawn and quartered or left unburied. The call today is for someone to do the deed for the one who no longer wishes to live. There have always been some folks willing to take it upon themselves to end the life of a friend or loved one. Lawyers call it mercy killing.
There are problems inherent to legalization of assisted suicide.

Who will set the parameters for those who can request death?
What about those unable to make or express their wishes in the matter of dying?
What provision will be made to guarantee that such laws would not be abused to get rid of old and sick folks who are a burden to their families?
What provision will be made for oversight of doctors who might abuse their power of death?
What provisions will be made for the aged or sick person who changes his mind about dying?
What about young people who request death, the lonely, the mentally ill, or prisoners?
What guarantees will there be that those who are mentally and physically defective will not be victimized under such laws?
How can we be sure that government will not eventually abuse the power we give it to terminate those who are defective, old or seriously ill? Such happened in Germany.
Why should we seek to involve in the business of administering death the medical profession which is trained to treat illness and save lives? The killing of other humans has a profound and often debilitating effect on the mind and psyche of people. Repeated involvement hardens natural sensitivities and respect for human life in general. This is demonstrated in those “angels of death” who often do their deadly work in hospitals and nursing homes.
Rather than encouraging suicide, let us learn to comfort, support and care for those who are aged or who are terminally ill. Bearing the burdens of others is a part of the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).

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