Responding to Kevorkian's Death

Jack Kevorkian, aka 'Dr. Death', died last week, and I feel like there should be a Christion response. While I wait to hear from our leaders, I am wondering what that response should be.

Jack Kevorkian was not a good man. He assisted in the suicides of 130 people, lethally injecting two of him himself. Most believe that he was simply helping the terminally ill have a say over how they would die. Many even consider him a hero for this. However, at least 70 percent of the people he helped commit suicide did not have a terminal illness, and, according to their autopsies, at least five were not sick at all. He was very much into macabre experimentation. He leaves a legacy of pro suicide and pro death ideology; he taught us that death could be the answer for suffering. No, Dr. Kevorkian was not a good man.

Truth be told, there's no such thing as a good man or woman. Romans says none are righteous, not one. We've all sinned. Consequently, we will all taste death, save for those who will be living at Christ's return. But even those who will be alive on that Day have experienced the sting of death, in there own physical and spiritual suffering. In losing loved ones to death. Death and sin and pain and suffering are as braided together as my hair used to be in the mornings before school. Kevorkian would have us believe that one (death) is the answer for the others (pain and suffering). However, the Good News of the Gospel is that Christ makes an end to suffering by conquering death. In HIS death and resurrection, he not only conquered death and Satan, He reconciled us to the Father Who forgives our sin through Christ's work and will bring us to His side, free of suffering, when our tired, sinful, old bodies wear out.

As Christians, we must not agree with the hopelessness of suicide. We see suffering all around us. We long to relieve it. Instead of agreeing with the hopeless- because in the hopeless mind, weary from pain, thinking is not clear- we must bring the suffering and the hurting to the Savior, Who gives eternal LIFE.

Kevorkian was no worse of a sinner than I. Without the grace of God, I very much could be spouting the same twisted logic. This is why we do not turn internally into our wicked human hearts for answers to human suffering. Now, answer we must- but it must be from our ultimate Authority- the Word of God, Who is Christ Himself.

'Rational' Suicide?

"'Rational' Suicide Advocates Push Assisted Suicide in Mental Health Journals"- A podcast edition of bioethicist Wesley J. Smith's 'What It Means to be Human'.

Bioethical Decisions in a Fallen World

As both a Christian and a caregiver for the elderly and those with disabilities, I'm struck with this Biblical view point- sin obstructs our decision making process.  In our fallen state, we often make choices, including medical choices, for the wrong reasons- often for motives that appeal to the flesh or mere human reasoning.  While paitents should remain a crucial part of the decision making process regarding their medical treatment and doctors should have the freedome to discern the best care for his/her patient, both patients and doctors would be wise to remember that human reasoning does not always lead us to the right choices.

Bioethics is attempting to set standards for the conduct of medicine and healthcare in an age of new knowledge and changing science.  However, bioethicists are setting these standards from a fallen state of mind.  Truth is subjective to them, as are ethics, dependent on such things as a person’s worldview, religion, and philosophy.   “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”  (Proverbs 14:12, 16:25)  If this proverb has ever been relevant, it is so with bioethics.  

When we, as Christians, set standards for how we care for the sick and needy, we must remember that truth is not relative.  The truth- the Biblical truth- about who God is and who man is plays a critical role in regard to medical decisions that affect the lives of the weak and the needy. All of those we care for in the hospital bed, teach life skills to in the group home, or 'produce' in the laboratory are deserving of dignity and respect for the sole reason that "In the image of God, made He man."  (Genesis 9:6)  So, while scientists can manipulate genes and clone embryos, we can never engineer the image of God out of a human being.  This truth alone could set the tone for any medical ethic.

However, likewise, in our attempts to manipulate genes and clone embryos to eradicate diseases and eliminate disabilities, we can never create a person who will not inherit the struggle with sin.  As much as we are created in the image of God, we are also sons of Adam; therefore, there will never be a perfect person.  Our only hope remains, as it always has, in Christ and Him crucified.  In His work on the cross- the great exchange, the righteous for the unrighteous, the suffering for our sins so He could save us from them and bring us to God.   This is incredible mercy and incredible love.

Despite the uniqueness of each created person, in these two things- our common created image and our common depravity- man can be considered virtually identical to one another.  Our worth could not be contingent upon any work or ability.  To say that a person is too weak or does not contribute enough is laughable compared to the greatness and splendor and perfection that is in God!  All men fall short of that Glory.  We are all too weak and no one ‘contributes’ enough!  For all of us, our worth is dependent only on who we are through the work of Christ at the cross. 

With new life in Christ through the cross, we are given new nature and the told to renew our minds.  In both this new nature and in our renewed minds, we view suffering, ethics, and caring for the weak and the vulnerable differently.  We now consider those weaker than we are, and we realize that it is a sin to not show them the same grace and mercy we were given, even if one is so weak that he or she is not even cognitively aware of it.  

Suffering is horrible.  It is no light thing.  We are better off dead and at peace with our Maker than alive on this dead earth!  But in our renewed minds, we know, also, that we cannot take suffering into our own hands, as those in bioethics seem to do.  We can never consider breaking God’s commandment to not murder, for instance, through abortion and euthanasia because we deem someone to be suffering too much.  We cooperate with nature and conform to the way God created it.  For when we attempt to manipulate nature (think of the undignified 'Ashley Treatment') and destroy that which we judge undesirable- destroy whom we judge undesirable because of the sufferings they are given- we question God’s goodness and wisdom leaving us rebuked as Job was- “Where was man when God laid the foundation of the earth?”  

As we painfully watch those around us suffer, doing all we can to ease their suffering, we are to suffer with those suffering.  We are not to cooperate with the hopelessness that suffering brings by manipulating the death one suffering or who we assume will suffer after birth.  Instead we offer them and their loved ones the hope of Christ found in His Gospel, that those who call upon His name will be saved from their sin soaked hearts, from the wrath of God, and from hell.  And that those who call upon His name will be saved to new life in Christ, to a perfect and holy body in eternity, and the unimaginable joy of eternity in the presence of the Creator.

Because of the unity we have with Christ (because of the great love and mercy shown to us at the cross), we, in humility, count others more significant than ourselves.  We look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others.  We have this mind among ourselves, which is ours in Christ Jesus Who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  (Philippians 2:1-8)

And so we humble ourselves to one another, using our freedom to serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13), taking tender care of the weak (1 Thessalonians 5:14), seeking justice and encouraging the oppressed (Isaiah 1:17), and becoming disabled to the disabled (1 Corinthians 9:22) in order to share the Gospel to all people, in hopes that all people will be saved from, among other things, their fallen states of minds, having their minds aligned with Christ and His purposes for all things- including suffering and caring for those suffering.  

Four Arrested in Two States in Assisted-Suicide Probe

From the story:

Four people in two states have been arrested as part of an investigation into the Final Exit Network, an organization that police believe helped a Georgia man end his life in June, authorities said Thursday.

John Celmer, 58, lived in Cumming, north of Atlanta. Cumming police, the Forsyth County coroner and the man's relatives all had suspicions that his death was an assisted suicide, and
the Georgia Bureau of Investigation launched an investigation, the agency said in a news release.

The GBI on Wednesday set up a sting operation at a
residence in adjoining Dawson County, using an undercover agent who had posed as a terminally ill man seeking assistance with his suicide, the statement said.

Four people were arrested and charged with "assisted suicide, tampering with evidence and violation of the Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act".

The Final Exit Network, based in the north Atlanta suburb of Marietta, identifies itself on its Web site as "an all-volunteer organization dedicated to serving people who are suffering from an intolerable condition. Network volunteers offer you counseling, support and even guidance to self-deliverance
at a time and place of your choosing, but you always do the choosing. We will never encourage you to hasten your death."

An 'intolerable condition'. What could that mean? Certainly not just a terminal illness, as this group, FEN, has been linked by police to the death of a woman with mental illness and depression.

They claim on their website that they will never encourage someone seeking their assistance to hasten his death. However, read on.

Goodwin [one of the men arrested] allegedly walked the undercover agent through the steps and demonstrated how he would hold the agent's hands to stop him from removing the exit bag...

My concern with murders like these is that this will lead to the continued legalization of assisted suicide. Using the same argument that many do with abortion, some will claim that assisted suicide must be legal, arguing that these 'back alley' assisted suicides are just not safe.

Court Ruling Makes Assisted Suicide Legal in Montana

From the story:

Montana judge: Man has right to assisted suicide

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana judge has ruled that doctor-assisted suicides are legal in the state, a decision likely to be appealed as the state argues that the Legislature, not the court, should decide whether terminally ill patients have the right to take their own life.

Judge Dorothy McCarter issued the ruling late Friday in the case of a Billings man with terminal cancer, who had sued the state with four physicians that treat terminally ill patients and a
nonprofit patients' rights group.

"The Montana constitutional rights of individual privacy and human dignity, taken together, encompass the right of a
competent terminally (ill) patient to die with dignity," McCarter said in the ruling.

It also said that those patients had the right to obtain
self-administered medications to hasten death if they find their suffering to be unbearable, and that physicians can prescribe such medication without fear of prosecution.

"The patient's right to die with dignity includes protection of
the patient's physician from liability under the state's homicide statutes," the judge wrote.

Attorney General Mike McGrath said Saturday that attorneys in
his office would discuss the ruling next week and expected the state will appeal the ruling...

...The state attorney general's office had argued that intentionally taking a life was illegal, and that the issue was the responsibility of the state Legislature.

Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Anders had argued the state has no evaluation process, safeguards or regulations to provide guidance or oversight for doctor-assisted suicide. The state also said it was premature to declare constitutional rights for a competent, terminally ill patient because the terms
"competent" or "terminally ill" had yet to be defined.

The ruling noted that doctors are often asked to "determine the
competency of their patients for the purposes of guardianship and other legal proceedings."

"Whether a patient is terminally ill can also be determined by the physician as an integral component of the physician-patient relationship," McCarter wrote.

McCarter's ruling makes Montana the third state after Oregon and Washington to allow doctor-assisted suicides. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that terminally ill patients have no constitutional right to doctor-assisted suicide but did nothing to prevent states from legalizing the process.

So, apparently, a judge can go a make a decision like this all by herself... How? It's unbelievable.

The Media's Love for Suicide Outlaws

The Media's Love for Suicide Outlaws

On this episode of What It Means to Be Human, Wesley J. Smith takes a look at the media’s fawning treatment of suicide advocates. What does a reporter see when he visits the home of a suicide facilitator? Strangely and sadly, he often sees a hero.

Listen in as bioethicist Wesley J. Smith shows how journalism has become a prime mover in the culture of death, to the point that its terminal nonjudgmentalism cannot be trusted.

What We Are Becoming With the Culture of Death

What We Are Becoming With the Culture of Death

On this episode of What It Means to Be Human, bioethicist and Discovery Institute senior fellow Wesley J. Smith takes a look at our culture’s "terminal nonjudgmentalism." How far have we come as a society when we lose the will to save suicidal people's lives? Smith examines two outrageous cases from the UK,
one where doctors refused to save a dying girl and another where a disabled man’s parents helped took him to Switzerland to commit suicide. What does the advocacy of death culture turn us into? Tune in and find out.

In this episode, Smith quotes a study that says after 5 years, the depression of those who've acquired a severe disability later in life levels to the same as those without disabilities. Something to think about STRONGLY when it comes to the debate over assisted suicide

TAKE THE PLEDGE!

A campaign has launched in oppositon to assisted suicide. If you oppose assisted suicide, take the pledge as either a physician, medical caregiver, or concerned citizen not to participate in this practice. Please feel free to come back here and tell me about it.

Medical Providers Say They Won't Assist with Suicides

A glimmer of hope

From SpokesmanReview.com:

Medical providers say they won't assist with suicides

While Washington voters made it legal for doctors to help terminally ill residents end their lives, opponents of the assisted suicide measure indicated Wednesday they will continue to resist the practice.

Initiative 1000 won with strong support Tuesday, but doctors don't have to help their patients make that final act, says the Washington State Medical Association.
Furthermore, Eastern Washington's largest hospital system, Providence Health and Services, will forbid physicians from helping patients die at its hospitals, nursing homes and assisted care centers.

"Providence will not support physician-assisted suicide within its ministries," the owner of Sacred Heart Medical Center and Holy Family Hospital said in a prepared statement. "This position is grounded in our basic values of respect for the sacredness of life, compassionate care of dying and vulnerable persons, and respect for the integrity of medical, nursing and allied health professions. We do not believe health care providers should ever be put in a position of aiding a patient in taking his or her own life."

The new Washington law is set to take effect in July 2009 after state regulators write rules to guide the practice.

Read the rest of the article here.

Washington Becomes Second State to Legalize Assisted Suicide in Election Vote

From LifeNews.com:

Olympia, WA (LifeNews.com) -- The state of Washington has joined Oregon to
become the second state in the nation to legalize the grisly practice of
assisted suicide. Voters in the northwestern state approved I-1000 despite
strong opposition from pro-life groups, doctors organizations, disability rights
activists and Catholic voters.

With 42 percent of the vote counted in
the state, I-1000 carried with the support of 58 percent of voters compared with
42 percent who opposed assisted suicide.

Opponents of assisted suicide
had a hard time competing with the money thrown at them from the pro-euthanasia
groups that outspent them as
much as 12-1 thanks to out-of-state money.

Read rest of story here

From Wesley J Smith's blog Secondhand Smoke:

Anyone who still says "it can't happen here," isn't paying attention. It is
happening here, and it will happen here increasingly unless there is a greater
commitment shown by those with means who oppose these agendas to reversing the
current course.

I just don't know that I can finish this post today.

Gay Rights

No, not really. More on Washington's assisted suicide initiative. But, gay rights seem to capture more attention.

From Fox News, Dying Wish

Assisted Suicide Initiative Being Promoted in Washington State

From their website, "In Washington, the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide has formed to combat I-1000, the assisted suicide initiative that is being promoted for the 2008 ballot."
With the passing of this law assisted suicide would be legal in Washington State, allowing doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to patients with terminal illnesses to kill themselves. This law would be modeled after Oregon's Law.

In the Netherlands, where assisted suicide and euthanasia have been practiced for the last 20 years, since both have become less of a rare occurance and more of a standard practive, improvements in pain management and palliative care have slown down. "Pressure for improved pallitive care seems to have evaporated," according to Herbert Hendin, M.D., a Director of Suicide Prevention International.

From the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide website, we see what a slippery slope the acceptance of assisted suicide is:

"Once the Dutch accepted assisted suicide it was not possible legally or morally
to deny more active medical (assistance to die), i.e. euthanasia, to those who
could not effect their own deaths. Nor could they deny assisted suicide or
euthanasia to the chronically ill who have longer to suffer than the terminally
ill or to those who have psychological pain not associated with physical
disease. To do so would be a form of discrimination.

Involuntary
euthanasia has been justified as necessitated by the need to make decisions for
patients not [medically] competent to choose for themselves."


Research shows that, for one thousand people a year in the
Netherlands, physicians have ended their patients' lives without any request
from or consultation with the patients.

This would be our future. Go to the website and offer support now.

Secondhand Smoke

Just in case you don't have enough blogs and websites to keep up with, I've been reading a very informative blog lately called Secondhand Smoke. It's authored by Wesley J. Smith, "a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, an attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, and a special consultant for the Center for Bioethics and Culture." (From the site.)

His blog consists of his view point regarding bioethics, etc. If you go to his site, you'll need your eyedrops, as his blog is quite the eye opener... so, your eyes will get dry after awhile from being open so long while reading... okay, sorry.

Incidentally, he's also the speaker from the lecture I wrote about a few days ago regarding the absolute value of human life. I found a short five minute clip of that lecture, btw.

People Are Dying Because of Bad Ethical Theory

Does Life Have Absolute Value Simply Because It Is Human?

Does life have absolute value simply because it is human?

We have to answer that question. We have to. We have to.
We have to realize that bioethicists today, SAY NO. We have to become educated, at the very least aware, of what the consequences have been and will be of them saying no! We have to.

What do we say, Christ followers? How do we answer this question? A simple yes or no will suffice- for now. It's a start.

Most of us are already aware when we listen to God and let Him put His Truth in our hearts that the once taken for granted sanctity of human life is no longer a given, we will grieve for the life that has been lost, for the lives that will be lost, and for what our part has been. And it will hurt.
I know, believe me, I know, it's hard to look at what's happening. It makes us have to do all that 'thinking'. I know it's 'uncomfortable' when we seek God's Truth in this matter because we have to 'feel stuff'. We might offend people, even our friends, and be contraversial. We might even be called to speak out, make a stand.

You don't have to watch all of these videos. They are of a lecture given by Wesley Smith at Trinity Law School on the value of human life and what is happening in the field of ethics today. Watching all four will take two hours total of your time. So, you don't have to watch all of both videos.

But you do have to answer the question- Does life have absolute value simply because it is human? You have to.