Assisted suicide is back on the agenda seeking to make it legal in the UK. There are strong views on the topic, in part because any of us could face it—for ourselves or our relatives. When my own dad was dying of a brain tumor, we had to navigate the realities of end of life care.
We live in a culture that has all too often reduced human life to functionality and usefulness. But what happens when you can no longer contribute to society? Do you still have purpose? We live in a society that is particularly focused on the individual. One campaign group has called itself ‘My death, my decision’—as if our individual choices don’t affect others. But what about the medical staff who swore an oath to do no harm? What about family and friends who have to live with the loss? What about wider culture—do we really want to be like Canada where, by 2022, 4.1% of all deaths were from assisted suicide? And the number is rising.
Kim Leadbeater, the UK bill’s sponsor, has argued that adequate safeguards will be put in place, though these have not yet been specified. There have been suggestions that only those with six or 12 months left to live will be eligible, but these types of prognoses are far from certain. Most of us know someone who has beaten the best medical predictions, and the doctors themselves will be under even more pressure to predict how long a patient has left to live.
It is also impossible to safeguard against the pressures an elderly or disabled patient might feel of being a burden. Care is expensive and costs are rising. Imagine knowing that every day you remain alive, you are reducing the amount you can leave to your family or are negatively impacting their financial circumstances. Nothing may be spoken, but the implicit pressure mounts because this proposed legislation would create an alternative way out. That’s to say nothing of the less scrupulous who could exercise coercive control over an elderly or sick relative in the so-called "best interests of everyone”.
But perhaps, more fundamentally, we struggle as a society to know what to do with suffering. Our desire to end suffering may seem noble, but when we can’t alleviate the suffering, the solution should not be to end the sufferer’s life.
Compassion is a distinctly Christian value that means ‘to suffer with’.
People talk about compassion, but compassion is a distinctly Christian value that means ‘to suffer with’. Compassion is about journeying through suffering, not avoiding it. The Christian faith would be very different if it wasn’t centered on the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Western culture likes to borrow Christian ideas, like dignity and compassion and then empty them of meaning by talking about euthanasia in terms of dignity in dying and a compassionate death.
The whole conversation around assisted dying, whilst being raw and emotionally charged on many levels, can still offer us the opportunity to bring hope and a different perspective to a difficult conversation. The current Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmoud, has spoken with clarity on the subject: “As a Muslim, I have an unshakeable belief in the sanctity and the value of human life. I don’t think death is a service that the state should be offering.”
Human life is sacred.
Many of all faiths and none share a conviction about the sacred nature of human life. Sometimes we, as Christians, have lacked the clarity of the Lord Chancellor. We make the slippery slope argument or point to the tragic place Canada and other Western nations have found themselves in with people choosing medically assisted suicide after failing to get adequate housing. But the argument is in many ways simpler and more fundamental—human life is sacred. That belief has motivated Christians like Dame Cicley Saunders who founded the modern hospice movement highlighting the importance of good palliative care.
Decisions at the end of life are not easy. There is no quick fix. But making it easier to end a life early is not the hoped for panacea. It simply shifts the pressure, exposing the most vulnerable subject to unspeakable pressure. In our consumerist society, the risk is that death becomes just another choice—the ultimate choice, as we play God with our own lives. But what if life in itself, not its purpose nor its quality, is a gift and not some cosmic fluke? What if every single person is a valuable image bearer—embodied with significance, and invited into connection, presence and participation with the God who created the universe. What if we actually encounter our Lord in our suffering, because He too knows what it is to suffer? What if there is more to life than choosing when we die?
Originally published by EAUK. Republished with permission.
Peter Lynas oversees the advocacy team and the work of the Alliance across the four UK nations. He is passionate about faith in the public square and leads the Being Human project with Jo Frost. He previously worked as a barrister in Belfast before studying theology at Regent College in Vancouver, where he serves on the board. Peter is a regular media commentator, is married to Rose, has two daughters, and loves running.
The Evangelical Alliance in the United Kingdom is made up of hundreds of organisations, thousands of churches and tens of thousands of individuals, joined together for the sake of the gospel. Representing our members since 1846, the Evangelical Alliance is the oldest and largest evangelical unity movement in the UK. United in mission and voice, we exist to serve and strengthen the work of the church in our communities and throughout society. Highlighting the significant opportunities and challenges facing the church today, we work together to resource Christians so that they are able to act upon their faith in Jesus, to speak up for the gospel, justice and freedom in their areas of influence.
