By Joni Eareckson Tada
(RNS) — It has been heartbreaking these last few days to hear the story of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old, beautiful young woman diagnosed with a glioblastoma brain tumor and given only a few months to live. The saddest part of the story for me, however, is not her prognosis, but her decision to end her life prematurely on Nov. 1 through physician-assisted suicide.
I understand she may be in great pain, and her treatment options are limited and have their own devastating side effects, but I believe Brittany is missing a critical factor in her formula for death: God. The journey Brittany — for that matter, all of us — will undertake on the other side of death is the most important venture on which we will ever embark. So it must not be disregarded or brushed aside without thinking twice about the God who alone has the right to decide when life should begin and end.
Unfortunately, three countries and five states have now determined that individuals can make these choices for themselves. This is what happens when God is removed: The moral consensus that has guided that society begins to unravel. People in this country have bought into the premise that one really is better off dead than disabled.
In the Netherlands, for instance, doctors are free to decide whether a child born with a disability should live. The government has come up with a guideline of standards and if the medical team believes that the child — or the parents — would face significant suffering, then that infant can be euthanized.
It shouldn’t be the state’s responsibility to help people who are despairing of their physical circumstances to kill themselves. Rather, let’s pour more effort into improving pain management therapies. Let’s channel more resources into the hospice movement. Let’s lift people out of depression through compassionate support and family assistance and help.
Romans 14:7 says, “For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.” Brittany’s well-publicized decision is already influencing untold numbers of despairing people that physician-assisted suicide could be the answer to their problems. This is no way to strengthen care and nurturing in society; rather, such a decision further unravels the cords of compassion that have characterized our nation for so many decades. A right to privacy is radicalized by physician-assisted suicide — it does not strengthen the common good, but only alienates, separates and dismantles us as a people who truly care for one another.
If I could spend a few moments with Brittany before she swallows that prescription she has already filled, I would tell her how I have felt the love of Jesus strengthen and comfort me through my own cancer, chronic pain and quadriplegia. I would tell her that the saddest thing of all would be for her to wake up on the other side of her tombstone only to face a grim, joyless existence not only without life, but without God.
Brittany may think her choice is a highly personal and private one, but it is not. Already, her decision has reignited hotly contested debates as to whether physician-assisted suicide should be expanded beyond the five states where it is legal. Proponents of Brittany’s decision are already using her story as a bully pulpit to advance their so-called death-with-dignity agendas.
But should access to lethal prescriptions be considered as merely another menu item available for dying patients? Is good hospice care allowing for people to control the timing and manner of their deaths? I do not believe so. Expanding hospice “services” to include an option to be put to death would not enhance palliative care, but actually interfere with the proper delivery of hospice services.
There are good laws throughout the U.S. that help people die with dignity — laws that provide advanced pain management therapies for people dealing with intractable pain. Plus, people have the legal right to refuse treatment if they don’t want it.
In addition, legalizing physician-assisted suicide in more states may send a bad signal to families who have little access to health care dollars: Would we be saying to low-income families, “We won’t provide health care for your critical condition, but we can make it easier for you to commit suicide”?
Most of all, assisted suicide poses a real danger to people with disabilities. Who is to say when multiple sclerosis or ALS is classified as “terminal”? People who receive a diagnosis of a chronic, disabling condition often experience suicidal feelings, but later adapt very well. Working through that initial period of despondency takes a lot longer than the “waiting periods” of existing physician-assisted suicide laws.
Only Jesus was able to transform the landscape of life-after-death by conquering the grave and opening the path to eternal life. Three grams of phenobarbital will provide only a temporary reprieve and will only more quickly usher in an eternity separated from God, which would be ultimate and pointless suffering.
Life is the most irreplaceable and fundamental condition of the human experience, and I implore Brittany and others considering her example to take a long, hard look at the consequences of a decision that is so fatal, and worst of all, so final.
Joni Eareckson Tada is an author, disability advocate and the founder of Joni and Friends International Disability Center, whose Christian Institute on Disability aggressively promotes life, human dignity and the value of all individuals from a biblical perspective. Injured in a diving accident in 1967, Tada is one of the longest-living quadriplegics on record.
© 2014 Religion News Service. Used with permission.
Posted Oct. 16, 2014
Joni,
Your article is timely and reminds us that the author of life has a plan for us. I pray that Brittany Maynard would come to faith and realize that we all have crosses to bear and even in the midst of our suffering; sometimes our faith in Jesus may be the only hope in our life, and we know our destination to be in the presence of Jesus who heals us from all our infirmities. Praise God for sharing your story of hope in the life you lead.
God Bless
Bill
Nothing is more annoying and insulting that telling someone to ‘come to faith’. Who are you to determine that a decision different from what you would make is sign that a person lacks faith? Brittany’s choice is not different from a person who determines to stop treatment- or continue treatment. It is a medical decision made in the face of a certain diagnosis.
Good article. God IS the only one who can decide when life begins and ends.
However, God is merciful, and one would hope that one who dies by one’s own hand is forgiven.
Life is a most precious gift given by God. Taking one’s own life by one’s own hand, or by physician assisted suicide is in violation of the fifth commandment! It is a permanent solution to a temporary situation.
I would think a person would want to follow God’s will, and live the life He has given. To the cold, hardhearted physician that assists and condones this action…Kyrie Elieson!!!!
I would love to see the Lord show His authority over this situation and take her home before she decides to take her own life.
Brittany, I pray that you will change your mind. Your death will only be filled with more pain,ugliness and torture. Give God a chance to finish out your life. You have a purpose here on earth and only God knows what he has in store for you. Read about Job in the Bible. Please don’t give in to the devil as he wants another soul. Read your bible and listen to the words of God. I will pray for you.
I feel like using statements like “joyless existence not only without life, but without God.” and ” Three grams of phenobarbital will provide only a temporary reprieve and will only more quickly usher in an eternity separated from God” give the wrong impression about us as LCMS Christians.
I think they inappropriately lead people to think that we believe she will go to hell because she is going to kill herself.
The following comes directly form the official LCMS response to Suicide:
The Synod does not have an official position regarding the eternal state of individuals who have committed suicide, though theologians of the Synod have commented from time to time on pastoral questions that often arise in such cases.
Since the spiritual condition of an individual upon death is known only to God, our theologians have proceeded cautiously in making judgments in this regard. LCMS pastor and author Otto E. Sohn, for example, has stated:
“Assuredly we would not wish to judge anyone who resorts to self-destruction. It is impossible for us to plumb the depths of gloom into which even Christian people may sink and irresponsibly lay unholy hands upon themselves. Perhaps the Lord will not hold them responsible, but we do not know.” (What’s the Answer, Concordia Publishing House, 1960, p. 144).
It seems that this LCMS publication is contradictory to the other.
I agree with you Mark. That is exactly what I thought when reading the article. It comes across as harsh, damning and judgemental. But on the other hand, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I don’t think her opinion should be representative of the LCMS as a whole. At least I won’t take it that way.
As a nurse I had a patient ask me why her life shouldn’t be ended because she was leading a “useless” life. She said people took the life of animals when they were no longer useful. I knew the lady was a believer and that she read her Bible most days. She also knew I was a believer. I shared with her that God gave man stewardship over the animals to care for and to use as just and right. This also included killing for the purpose involved. But a good steward always tried to make the right decision.
God did not give us stewardship over ourselves. He alone, is to decide the number of our days. We then talked about what useless means to her and how as a listener and a prayer warrior she wasn’t useless at all.
LuNell ~ Awesome interpretation of the situation. We all have something to contribute, even in our apparently most dire of circumstances. Jesus is Lord of All, and all too often, in our ‘human’ shortcomings, we fail to see the big picture, and desire a way off the rough road we see ahead. However, We must Learn to see that our physical experience is just that – only a physical experience of an ETERNAL being, and that we have the opportunity to make a choice that can have a profound positive influence on the multitudes that we cannot even fathom will be effected by the Choices or our lives. Lord Willing, may we choose wisely, so that those that follow us may learn from our Actions, and better themselves for it.
How do you know she doesn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus? ALS and multiple sclerosis are NOT temporary conditions. They both are terminal and horrible deaths. As an RN and a Lutheran I believe that the relationship I have with Jesus is very private. Brittany doesn’t think her life is useless, she has Glioblastoma, a very aggressive cancer and her final days will be spent not knowing who or where she is. To take her own life while she still has the capacity to say what is in her heart is her CHOICE. If I were in her shoes, I wouldn’t want to die unable to respond to my loved ones last words to me. I would the conversation of “see you later” to be two sided. Before you throw stones at her walk a mile in her shoes.
I’m reminded of the verse from Matthew stating (in a matter of words) to take the log from your own eye before you take the splinter from your brother’s (in this case – sister).
Keep your mouths shut, don’t blab this poor woman’s personal ordeal and name all over cyberspace.
It’s stupidity like this that had made Christians leave the LCMS in droves in recent years.
There is only One who can judge us. It is His decision. None of us know the outcome. Only He does. So we cannot judge, lest we be judged.