July 2, 2006

“Our God Treasures Us”

What Does God Say About Euthanasia?

Contemporary Issues Series

Rev. Brian D. Hawes

Prayer and Scripture: Kim

 

·       To be honest with you, euthanasia is something I never thought about much until about twelve years ago.  That was when Kim’s dad went through his long illness and finally passed away.  I still remember him hallucinating from all the drugs he had to take.  I still remember him struggling to recover.  And when I think about that time, there’s a part of my heart that cries out to end such suffering and pain.  There’s a part of my heart that struggles with this thing called euthanasia, that wants to chuck the truth out the window and do what seems to be the most compassionate thing to do.   I still struggle with this at times.  God’s word is still the absolute standard of truth, and not our emotions.  No matter how strongly we identify with someone’s pain, God’s word is still the absolute standard of truth.  So let’s take a moment and look at some definitions of euthanasia, as defined by www.euthanasia.com.

·       Euthanasia: the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit. (The key word here is "intentional". If death is not intended, it is not an act of euthanasia)

·        Voluntary euthanasia: When the person who is killed has requested to be killed.

·        Non-voluntary: When the person who is killed made no request and gave no consent.

·        Involuntary euthanasia: When the person who is killed made an expressed wish to the contrary.

·       Assisted suicide: Someone provides an individual with the information, guidance, and means to take his or her own life with the intention that they will be used for this purpose. When it is a doctor who helps another person to kill themselves it is called "physician assisted suicide."

·       Euthanasia By Action: Intentionally causing a person's death by performing an action such as by giving a lethal injection.

·       Euthanasia By Omission: Intentionally causing death by not providing necessary and ordinary (usual and customary) care or food and water.

·       What Euthanasia is NOT: There is no euthanasia unless the death is intentionally caused by what was done or not done. Thus, some medical actions that are often labeled "passive euthanasia" are no form of euthanasia, since the intention to take life is lacking. These acts include not commencing treatment that would not provide a benefit to the patient, withdrawing treatment that has been shown to be ineffective, too burdensome or is unwanted, and the giving of high doses of pain-killers that may endanger life, when they have been shown to be necessary. All those are part of good medical practice, endorsed by law, when they are properly carried out.

·       What does the Bible say about euthanasia?  This specific word isn’t used in either the Old or New Testaments, but there are several Scriptures that can help us understand God stance on it.  Let’s start with Job.  If there was anyone who could be eligible for euthanasia, it was Job.  After he lost everything he owned and all his children, chapter one verse twenty tell us he did this: Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped.  21 He said, “Naked I cam from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there.  The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.”  22 Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.  We pick up the account again in chapter two, this time after his entire body had been covered with boils.  Verse 9 – Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity?  Curse God and die!”  10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks.  Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?”  11 In all this Job did not sin with his lip.  Now it’s true that later on Job had a big pity party, but there’s a big difference between having a pity party and having your friends kill you.  Job understood that life is from God and it is God who is responsible to decide when we live and when we die.  Just because our time to die doesn’t fall into our timing doesn’t mean we have the right to play God.

·       One truth that seems obvious about euthanasia is that it devalues the sick, the poor and the elderly.  After all, if terminally ill people aren’t deemed worthy to contribute to society, then other people who are weak or are deemed unable to contribute should face the same fate, right?  Wrong!  Proverbs 16:31 says, A gray head is a crown of glory; it is found in the way of righteousness.  And Proverbs 20:29 says, The glory of young men is their strength, and the honor of old men is their gray hair.  During the time this was written, it was much less common for people to live long enough to have full heads of gray hair, so avoiding the diseases and injuries that took life early was considered a blessing from God.  The elderly were valued for the wisdom they’d gained over a lifetime of walking with God.  In our society, the elderly are much less valued by many.  Even though we give each other a bad time, I’m thankful for my mother-in-law.  Her wisdom and solid faith have carried me through many times.  Leviticus 19:32 says, Show respect to the aged; honor the presence of an elder; fear your God.  I am God.  We can’t afford to allow our society to devalue those God values.

·       James 1:27 says, Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.  The books of the prophets in the Bible are filled with instances of God’s anger with the people of Israel because they have oppressed the weak, the elderly, the poor, and the sick.  God’s stance is that we do everything we can to love and protect them.  Man’s stance is to “relieve them of their pain” and their burden on society.  But Dr. Kenneth Stevens, professor of radiation oncology at Oregon Health Sciences University, said this in November of 2005 - "There is not one case in Oregon of assisted suicide being used for actual untreatable pain. Pain can be treated. Assisted suicide has been used for psychological and social concerns." – as cited on www.euthanasia.com.  Our society has become so selfish that we tend to make those who can’t do what they used to feel as though they are simply a burden on us and on our society.  As of July of 2005, official reports show that 208 people had taken their own lives using doctor-assisted euthanasia since it first became legal seven years earlier.  Our society devalues life.  As Christians, we can help those we know learn to value life as God does.  How do we do that?

·       First, adopt a biblical view on life yourself.  In other words, we’ve got to learn to have the same beliefs about life and its value as God does.  Jesus makes very clear how God feels about human life in Matthew 6:26: Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not worth much more than they?  That’s a powerful statement about how God feels about us.  He loves us.  He treasures us.  And through His love we can learn to value one another’s uniqueness.  A biblical view on life will help us learn to love as Jesus does.

·       Second, take advantage of every opportunity to share this value of life with those you encounter.  I know it’s hard to share such emotionally volatile issues as euthanasia, especially when someone has gone through the experience of a loved one’s drawn-out death process.  But God will open doors in our relationships for us to share in a general way about how much He values life, and then more specifically about how much He values the weak, sick, elderly and oppressed.  Psalm 68:5 says, A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, is God in His holy habitation.  Isaiah 10:1-2 says, Woe to those who enact evil statues and to those who constantly record unjust decisions, so as to deprive the needy of justice and rob the poor of My people of their rights, so that widows may be their spoil and that they may plunder the orphans.  If we’re going to experience real religion as God defines it, we’ve got to share His value of life so that those who are weakest and most in need will be defended.

·       Third, do what you can to help the weakest and neediest in our society.  That can be something as simple as volunteering to help struggling children learn to read at an elementary school, or something as complex as dedicating your life’s work to their welfare.  It can mean sponsoring a child through World Vision or another agency, or collecting canned food, or doing repairs for the elderly, or volunteering at the soup kitchen, or helping out at Green Acres or another school.  The options are almost endless.  1 Thessalonians 5:14 says, We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.  Folks, the way that our unbelieving community is going to see Christ’s love in us is through our involvement in the lives of those who struggle to help themselves.  Even a few hours a week or month can make a difference.  Through my work at the high school three or four hours a month, I’ve been able to build some relationships with youth who are really struggling and speak love and truth into their lives.  One person can make a difference with God’s help, and can show our society that all human life is treasured by God.

·       Fourth, love those who promote euthanasia, even when they’re pushy.  As we talked about last week, we can love the sinner while hating the sin.  That’s hard to do at times, especially when dealing with such tremendously emotional issues.  If it’s difficult for us to deal with emotions associate with suffering, death and dying, imagine how hard it must be for an unbeliever to deal with those emotions.  Those who promote euthanasia have been deceived.  Satan is using their emotions to blind them to the truth, much as he does to us often throughout our lives.  We’ve got to speak the truth in love, but we’ve got to love first before we speak, and we show that love by what we do as well as what we say.  Love is the conduit that allows truth to be received.  Love those who promote and even perform euthanasia even while hating their sin.

·       Fifth, pray for the deliverance of our state and our country from the grasp of euthanasia.  As many liberals fight to make our country more like those in Europe, attitudes and beliefs are being pushed more and more here, and one of those is euthanasia.  Pray for those who promote it and perform it, pray for those whose families have been impacted by it.  But pray for deliverance and for a culture that values life to become more and more prevalent in our society.  Pray.

·       Alva B. Weir, an oncologist in Germantown, Tennessee, told this story: "I was awakened from sleep by the telephone. On the other end of the line, a distraught woman told me that her son had cancer, was a patient of one of my partners, was unconscious, breathing badly, with an empty bottle of pills at his bedside.  This patient had recently discovered that his cancer had metastasized to his bone. Along with his pain, he had lost control of his bowels. He could not tolerate the thought of pain and incontinence with no hope of cure. He had decided to end his life and appeared close to succeeding. The mother did not know what to do. I convinced her to bring him to the hospital.  I met them in the emergency room. The patient was breathing badly and looked as if he were dying from the overdose. I examined the patient, checked the laboratory results, and recommended that we lavage his stomach and place him on a ventilator until the drugs left his system.  The mother was uncertain; the brother took charge, suggesting that the patient desired suicide and that they should honor his wishes and let him die in peace rather than bring him through to face life with cancer. They insisted on taking him home with no therapy.  I worked with them for some time, and they compromised by allowing me to admit him to the hospital with only oxygen and intravenous fluid support, but no tubes and no ventilator. They consented mainly because of logistical and legal complications produced by a patient dying at home of suicide.  I admitted him, expecting him to die. The following weekend I was surprised to find this man's name on my list. I walked into the room to find a beaming mother and an alert patient. With the minimal support, he had survived his overdose. After another week, he was walking with his pain improved, bowels controlled, and depression diminished.  I realized that this man and his family, who had chosen for him the absence of life forever, were experiencing moments together of unfathomable value.  There is no one this side of heaven who has the ability to make the correct decision regarding when our life should be extinguished. Society should err on the side of the precious nature of human life rather than that of personal choice." (as cited on PreachingToday.com).

·       In what we say and what we do, let’s choose life.  Let’s pray.

·       The National Association of Evangelicals issued this statement on euthanasia, and I should note that our denomination has signed it.  Human beings are made in the image of God and are, therefore, of inestimable worth. God has given people the highest dignity of all creation.  Such human dignity prohibits euthanasia, that is actively causing a person's death.  In the past 30 years, medical technology has developed systems that have enabled physicians to more effectively care for their patients and save lives that would otherwise be lost. However, this technology has also resulted in the possibility of prolonging the dying process beyond its normal course. This often causes great suffering, not only for the patient, but also for the family, friends and caregivers.  Such technology also raises moral questions. For example, is it moral to withdraw a life-support system which is believed to be an inappropriate extension of the dying process? The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) believes that in cases where patients are terminally ill, death appears imminent and treatment offers no medical hope for a cure, it is morally appropriate to request the withdrawal of life-support systems, allowing natural death to occur. In such cases, every effort should be made to keep the patient free of pain and suffering, with emotional and spiritual support being provided until the patient dies.  When a person's cerebral cortex dies, is it moral for the family or medical staff to withdraw life-support systems? The National Association of evangelicals believes that in cases where extensive brain injury has occurred and there is clear medical indication that the patient has suffered brain death (permanent unconscious state), no medical treatment can reverse the process.  (Brain death is not the equivalent of a coma. A patient might awaken from a coma, but not from brain death.) Removal of any extraordinary life-support system at this time is morally appropriate- ate and allows the dying process to proceed. Under such circum- stances, appropriate action is best taken where there is guidance from a signed "living will" or a durable power of attorney for health care. Where there is no "living will" or durable power of attorney for health care, the decision to withdraw life support should be made by the family and/or closest friends in consultation with a member of the clergy, when available, and the medical staff.  NAE acknowledges that the withdrawal of life-support systems is an emotional and difficult issue. However, we believe that medical treatment that serves only to prolong the dying process has little value. It is better that the dying process be allowed to continue and the patient permitted to die.  This is especially true of those who know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. For as the Apostle Paul said: "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8).  (Resolution adopted at the 1994 Annual Conference)