Death and Dying (3) Euthanasia

Christians assume that euthanasia is wrong because it is playing God. They believe that people who have a debilitating and devastating illness or incapacitating injuries should wait and die only when God turns off the switch. However, this is a bit confused, because most people do not die when God turns off the switch. They die when they are overwhelmed by an incurable sickness (which has often been inflicted by the spiritual powers of evil).

If a person is being defeated in a serious battle with the spiritual powers of evil, then ending their life might be sensible. Like Saul, this action could prevent the enemy from tormenting them further. Certainly, it would be better to win the battle, by getting the person with terminal illness healed, but if that is not realistic, then ender their suffering might be the only option.

In some ways, when a doctor assists someone with a terminal illness to end their life, they are doing what Saul wanted his amour-bearer to do. The bible says that Saul’s armour-bearer refused to kill him when he was mortally wounded in battle, even though this was part of his role (1 Sam 31:1-6). It explains that the armour-bearer refused because he was terrified. There is no suggestion that this man was correct in his action. Rather he is portrayed as inadequate because he failed to his duty. He confirmed that ending Saul’s life was the right action, by falling on his own sword.

In the modern world, medicine dominates life and death, so there very little scope for God to get involved in turning off the switch, as medical activity determines when people die. Most people have more faith in doctors than they have in God, so there is very little scope for him to get involved in their lives, or their death.

Modern medicine has a huge influence over when and how people die.

• Deciding that some elderly people are “not for resuscitation.”

• Giving terminally ill people sufficient morphine to relieve their pain, knowing that it will cause their body to shut down.

• Undertaking surgery on victims of serious accidents to keep them alive for a life of severe disability or chronic pain.

• Keeping alive people who would rather be dead.

• Extending the lives of people with incurable illness by using antibiotics to treat pneumonia and other infections that would otherwise kill them, meaning that they have to die of more serious conditions, which make dying more unpleasant.

There is not much room for God to work in these normal medical activities, and most modern people do not give him permission to get involved in the process.

Modern medicine often extends a person’s life beyond the time when it would normally end, and also shortens lives to prevent unnecessary suffering. This seems to be what people want. So any discussion about euthanasia should really be about the boundaries and benefits rather than whether they should happen at all. The character and integrity of the people clinicians making life and death decisions will be more important than laws and regulations.

I am not interested in euthanasia for myself. I am trusting that God will keep me well until I am finished all that he has me on earth to do. I trust that when my work is incomplete, he will turn off my switch, so that I can go to be with him.

However, I can understand how people who do not know Jesus are unwilling to wait for God to turn off the switch when they become incapacitated. I don’t expect these people who do not know God to live by his standards, and I do not think it is my job to impose his standards on them using political power.

When people who were suffering came to Jesus, he healed them. I don't believe that Christians have the right to tell a man who is suffering from severe illness or physical disability that he must keep on suffering while waiting for a God whom he doesn't believe in to end his life, if they do not have the power to heal him. A belief that God can end lives, but cannot heal sickness and suffering is odd.