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When
Is It Right to Die?
.
BY JONI
EARECKSON TADA
Recently, Joni Eareckson Tada underwent
treatment for reoccurring cancer.
She was also hospitalized for two weeks due
to pneumonia and related lung disease.
Upon her release, she
had this to say: “Yes, my body may be wasting away, but inwardly I am being
renewed day by day. Every day is packed with purpose, as well as a mission to
accomplish.”
She told Decision: “I
am back at Joni and Friends and am excited about championing the cause for
life!”
In this article, she urges Christians to get
involved in the fight against euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Fifty years ago, when I broke my neck in a
diving accident and became a quadriplegic overnight, I fell into deep despair.
Facing life in a wheelchair without use of my
arms?
Languishing in a hospital for nearly two
years? I wanted to end it all.
I begged my high school friends to bring in
their mothers’ pills or their fathers’ razors.
When my friends refused, I would violently
jerk my head back and forth on my pillow, hoping to break my neck at a higher
place and thus kill myself.
It’s a good thing I never succeeded because
now, five decades later, I am content in my wheelchair.
But what if I weren’t? What if I were still
in despair? I could still get my death wish.
In several countries I could qualify for
physician-assisted suicide, and the U.S. may not be far behind.
In seven U.S. states and the District of
Columbia, assisted-suicide is now legal, and any one of those states could
expand the meaning of terminal illness.
All it would take would be a court decision
that modifies its definition, such as happened in Belgium, Switzerland and the
Netherlands.
In Europe, multiple sclerosis and ALS (Lou
Gehrig’s Disease) are viewed as terminal.
Will the U.S. one day provide assisted
suicide to people with severe spinal injuries like mine?
How did we come to
this point?
Why does our society
on one hand celebrate the rights of the elderly and people with disabilities
and on the other hand imply that “people are better off dead than disabled?”
And it’s not just people with chronic conditions.
“Christians must get
engaged in this battle. First, by facing a disturbing fact: … 42 percent of
churchgoers agree that doctors should be allowed to assist terminally ill
people in suicide. In other words, followers of Christ are buying into the
allure of assisted suicide.”
There are constant calls to reduce heroic
measures or late-life care in the name of cost containment.
Some leaders in government are coercing these
people to consider it their duty to die.
In Oregon, California, Colorado, Montana,
Vermont, Washington and Hawaii — states where doctor-assisted death is legal — euthanasia
is positioned as an end-of-life treatment option.
Why the constant push to legalize
physician-assisted suicide?
Simply put, we are afraid of suffering. We
are afraid of being left alone or burdening others with our afflictions.
These fears are reflected in a June 2017
Gallup poll, which shows that 73 percent of Americans support euthanasia.
Fueling this movement is one’s cherished
“right to privacy,” which was affirmed in the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade
abortion decision.
Ever since then, we keep dressing up our
willful determinations by labeling them personal rights.
When this happens, the exercise of rights
becomes nothing more than a national competition over who is more victimized
than who, and we are no longer interested in the common good of all people, but
only in getting our way.
We want government to protect what we feel is
our personal right to die.
But is it the government’s responsibility to
help sick or elderly people kill themselves?
No. The role of government is to protect the
weak, seniors and the medically fragile.
A healthy society will always balance
personal rights against the common good, but government-sanctioned suicide
unravels the compassionate cords of our nation’s character.
Bill Federer,
president of Amerisearch, a company dedicated to researching America’s
heritage, states: “The greatness of America is in how it treats its weakest
members: the elderly, the infirmed, the handicapped, the underprivileged, the
unborn.”
Do we want to help people die a good death?
Then, if intractable pain is the issue, let’s pour more research dollars into
better pain management.
If fear is the issue, let’s surround people
with true spiritual community.
Most of all, we can help terminally ill
people understand what faces them on the other side of their tombstone.
Jesus is the only One who conquered the grave
and opened the path to life eternal.
How awful if people choose three grams of
phenobarbital in their veins, only to face a Christ-less eternity!
Christians must get engaged in this battle.
First, by facing a disturbing fact: in that
same June 2017 Gallup poll, 42 percent of churchgoers agree that doctors should
be allowed to assist terminally ill people in suicide.
In other words, followers of Christ are
buying into the allure of assisted suicide.
Yes, we have fears of suffering!
But God’s Word helps us combat fear.
When we are suffering, we can be comforted by
the fact that the Bible is filled with insights on the virtue of trusting the
Man of Sorrows acquainted with our grief.
Besides, the sixth
commandment, in Exodus 20:13, says, “You shall not murder” (this
logically includes self-murder).
God knows our weak
frame, and He states in Job 14:5, “A person’s days are determined; [the Lord
has] decreed the number of his months and [has] set limits he cannot exceed.”
He will take care of us to the end, tenderly
shepherding us beyond our tombstone into a life filled with joy and no
suffering.
So, get involved.
Right now, 21 states are considering
assisted-suicide laws in their state assemblies.
Find out if your state is numbered among
them, then spread the word.
Tell people there are good laws throughout
the U.S. that already help people die with dignity — laws that provide advanced
pain management, as well as grant a patient the right to refuse treatment.
And be alert if a right to die bill is
introduced into your state assembly.
The lives of
thousands are at stake, so “speak up for … the rights of all who are
destitute” (Proverbs
31:8).
Thankfully, when I was in the hospital,
Christian friends surrounded my bed and ascribed positive value to my pain.
They prayed for me and lifted me out of
social isolation.
Christians helped my parents financially when
insurance failed us.
Christ-followers cast a vision for me when I
was too weak to envision success myself.
They were the hands of Jesus that led me
“through the valley of the shadow of death.”
Yes, as an aging quadriplegic, I know there
are tough days ahead for me, but hope in Christ will see me through until the
Lord calls me home.
After all, Jesus is the One who makes life
worth living, even to the end.
J
oni
Eareckson Tada,
founder and CEO of Joni and Friends, is an advocate for people with
disabilities. Her bestselling autobiography, Joni, and the feature film of the
same name, produced by BGEA’s World Wide Pictures, introduced her story around
the world.
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