In October of 2020, a 90-year-old woman named Nancy Russell, who was a resident of a nursing home in Toronto, Canada, expressed a desire to have a doctor help her kill herself. She felt that the isolation of the previous several months was more than she could endure, and she saw no end to it.
Nancy Russell did not have dementia. She did not have any condition that would normally be considered terminal. However, in Canada, it is not necessary to have a terminal condition to ask for help to go through with physician-assisted suicide. Canada calls this procedure “Medical Assistance in Dying” (MAID). The name implies that it is about comfort care, but the reality is that it is anything but comfort care.
A geriatrician heard her story and agreed to help her. She was discharged to spend the next week with her family. At the end of that time, she was given a lethal injection with her family present. This is not an isolated case. In 2020 there were 7,595 people who killed themselves with a doctor’s assistance.
As I consider these sobering statistics, I feel a great sadness. There is a sense in which many families abandon their elderly or ill family members. COVID has only seemed to worsen this problem. An even larger issue is that our society no longer values the lives of older individuals.
A society that no longer values all human lives as important, begins to allow things like physician-assisted suicide, and even euthanasia. Euthanasia is when someone administers medication to another person for the purpose of killing that other person, while assisted suicide is when one person provides medication to another person that they then “self ”-administer, thereby killing themselves.
It is helpful to review how we, as Christians, approach end-of-life situations and try to understand where the world around us has gone so terribly wrong.
Made in the Image of God
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them –Genesis 1:27. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul –Genesis 2:7.
God put the life into Adam and Eve during Creation. He molded Adam from the dust of the earth and made Eve from Adam’s rib. It was God Himself who breathed into them the breath of life. More than that, He stamped on them His own image.
Humans do not have value because of services they do for others. They are not worth something because of their intelligence or talents. Rather, humans have value because God created them for a purpose. He values each one of them.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life –John 3:16. Considered by some as the most well-known passage of Scripture, this verse makes it clear that every single one of us is valuable to God and worthy of His redemption. Whosoever means “every one of us”.
There are many other verses like Jeremiah 1:4-5 and Psalm 139:13-15 that speak of God’s foreknowledge in our creation. God didn’t simply plan to bring Adam and Eve into this world and then let things go on their own from that point. Instead, He guides the conception and development of each one who is born. We may not understand all of God’s purposes, but we can say with certainty that God does not make mistakes.
Quality of Life
Much of the ethics surrounding end-of-life issues has to do with concepts like “quality of life” and “dignity”. Quality of life is the extent to which someone can enjoy their normal, everyday activities. Dignity refers to people feeling that they are being given adequate levels of respect.
Many people feel that both of these things—quality of life and dignity—decline when someone gets a severe and debilitating illness. Those with such illnesses who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus may feel that they have reached the point where they don’t want to continue living.
It is a dangerous position when people believe that lives are only worth living when things are easy and when the quality of life is high.
We, as followers of Christ, understand that suffering will come to all of us. It brings glory to God when we suffer with a meek and quiet spirit. More than that, it teaches other people the power of a God-transformed life. We cannot bear these trials alone. And we don’t need to because God’s Spirit is with us and gives us the strength to endure faithfully until the end.
Leaving Our Lives in God’s Hands
Christians should not be fatalistic. We do not believe that regardless of what we do, we are certain to die on a pre-determined day.
It seems likely that, while there is a maximum life span for each one of us, we can shorten that considerably through poor decisions.
Someone who drives while intoxicated, or who uses street drugs, may not have a long life, unless they mend their ways. To a lesser extent, someone who eats poorly and refuses to exercise may also shorten his lifespan and have considerably worse health than someone who chooses a healthy lifestyle.
Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass –Job 14:5. Our days are in God’s hands. It is not our place to do something to deliberately shorten them.
One of the Ten Commandments is: Thou shalt not kill – Exodus 20:13. Certainly this command would forbid doctors from purposely taking the life of their patient. It would also be a command against someone ending their own life.
It is far better if we can leave our days and hours in God’s hands. We have but to serve Him the best we can with what time we have. We do not get to choose the amount of time that is allotted to us.
End of Life
It is difficult to make sweeping statements about what someone can or should experience at the end of their life. Some terminal illnesses, like cancer with bony metastases, can cause large amounts of pain. On the other hand, some diseases, like kidney failure or dementia, cause very little pain, if any.
Some people would rather not pursue aggressive treatments. Chemotherapy, dialysis, and many other modern treatments have side effects, some of which can be quite negative. Choosing not to take treatment for a disease is different from choosing to actively end our lives.
It is also important that it should be an individual person’s own decision and not one that is foisted on them. In Sweden during COVID, the government made the decision that elderly residents of nursing facilities would not be treated for COVID. Many were not even given oxygen, but simply started on Morphine and sedatives to “make them comfortable” as they waited for the end.
Do Not Act in Fear
Many of the decisions that people make as they face a terminal diagnosis are made out of fear. They may be fearful of medication side effects, fearful of death, or simply fearful of being a burden to families.
Christians should not act out of such motivations. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind –2 Timothy 1:7.
As God’s children, we are not afraid of death. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him –1 Thessalonians 4:13-14.
We understand that our Savior has had victory over death and that he has taken away its sting. Jesus won a victory over death and the grave, so that we too can live without fear.
We may choose to take aggressive treatments, but we won’t be motivated by a desperate attempt to stave off death.
Rely On God’s Strength
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me –Philippians 4:13. This verse comes after the Apostle Paul spends time talking about how he is able to be content in any situation, both in times of plenty and in times of need.
We see clearly in his life that he put this very thing into practice. He experienced stonings, beatings, and shipwreck. One needs to believe that his body complained every evening when he would lie down to sleep, telling him of all the privations it had suffered.
It wasn’t ibuprofen or Tylenol that got him through these times (those wouldn’t be invented for many centuries). Rather, it was the strength which his relationship with God gave him. That same strength is available to us today, no matter what we are facing, even a terminal illness.
Understand that There Will Likely be Pain
One of the choices that people can make at the end of life is to accept palliative care. This is a type of care that is specifically designed to treat the pain and other symptoms, usually of a terminally ill patient (to keep them comfortable, not to try to cure them). This is the sort of care that is offered by hospice programs.
The doctors and nurses in hospice programs are focused primarily on eliminating pain rather than seeking a cure for the individual. Consequently, they rely very much on patients being honest about their pain levels so they can give the doses that patients feel that they need to control their pain.
Of course, this is challenging. Many times, the only way to completely eliminate pain is for a person to be so heavily medicated with pain medication that they are not able to relate to the people around them. As always, there needs to be some balance between controlling the pain and not having so much medicine that the individual is groggy and sleepy.
God is Glorified in Our Suffering
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal –2 Corinthians 4:17-18.
None of us enjoys suffering and we certainly do not seek it out. When we go through suffering, the world around us sees how we deal with it, and they can tell if there is something different about us.
We know that Jesus suffered much during His trial and crucifixion. Whatever suffering we go through is tiny compared with that.
Most important is that we keep our eyes on our Savior. He is the one that gives us strength to endure to the end. He is always faithful.
Conclusion
The world is a dark place these days. The value of life seems to have diminished over time. More and more countries are allowing doctors to prescribe medications that allow patients to end their own lives, while others go so far as to even allow doctors to administer medications that will kill their patients.
It is important that we continue to value human life and that we glorify God in everything we face—even if we are dealing with a terminal illness.
If we are responsible for caring for someone in this situation, it is very important that we affirm their value and make certain that they understand that they are not a burden. God values their lives and so should we. This support will help them as they struggle with the limitations that their health has put upon them.
None of us will live forever, but the things we do here have eternal consequences for us and for those we influence.
