SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE
All human life is sacred and created by God in His image. Because our Creator created us for His glory, human life is of immeasurable worth in all its dimensions, including pre-term babies, the aged, the physically or mentally challenged, and every other stage or condition from conception through natural death. We are called to defend, protect, and value all human life.
PHYSICIAN ASSISTED SUICIDE
God commands, “You must not murder.” Jesus also commands us, “love your neighbor as yourself.” Allowing someone to naturally die by withholding treatment(s) and/or life support adheres to these two commands, because the intention is to care for a person in the best and most humane way possible, rather than to cause someone’s death.
Permitting someone to die involves intention and benevolent care and it allows God-given timing to run its course. This is the moral distinction between physician-assisted suicide and allowing someone to die. It is in this space of God-given timing of suffering and eventual death that we can be part of God’s plan to mature us, our families, and others watching to a deeper awareness and dependence upon God; as James reminds us in chapter 1, verses 2 through 4, where he says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
