Well, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the poster boy for the assisted suicide movement, is out of prison and doing very well on the lecture circuit. Word on the street is that he can command up to $50,000 a speech. The Hemlock Society was named, of course, for the poison drunk by the Greek philosopher Socrates. He is one of the world’s most famous suicides, although he was actually merely carrying out a death sentence pronounced on him by an Athenian court. Hemlock’s founder, Derek Humphrey, now runs a company called Nu Tech, which researches and promotes various kinds of suicide. He also serves on the board of the “Final Exit Network.” The Hemlock Society has upgraded its image and now goes by the name of “Compassion and Choices.” I guess they figured that the term “choice” has really worked for people advocating for legal abortion on demand.

 

Three states now have legal assisted suicide—Oregon and Washington by voter referendum and Montana by a court ruling. Washington’s change was hastened by former governor Booth Gardner, now a Parkinson’s Disease victim, who put a lot of his own money into the campaign and made his slogan “My life! My death! My control!” This also sounds a lot like the “Our bodies, Ourselves” slogan of pro-abortion activists.

 

Montana judge Dorothy McCarter found in Montana’s constitutional right to privacy a fundamental right to “die with dignity.” Currently no Montana doctor who assists a patient with suicide can be charged with homicide.

 

This debate is not about pain and suffering. Palliative care and pain relief are available to all. This debate is all about who decides if a life is worth living. God thinks all babies are precious and deserve to live. God thinks all sick and elderly, and even dying, people are precious and valuable as well and should be allowed the full course of their lives. I guess if you think evolution is true, that you have neither Designer nor Creator and your life is a random accident, you are accountable to no one up there and can assign whatever meaning you want to life. If you believe in creation, you wouldn’t say “My life! My death! My control.” You would say, “Lord, come for me when you are ready for me.”

 

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Straight talk.  Real hope.

9/30/2009 - Posted by H
Just heard a commentary from Chuck Colson about Dr. Philip Nitschke, founder of Exit International, a "self-described “world-leading Voluntary Euthanasia” organization. As part of his mission, Nitschke, who is from Australia, travels to different countries teaching people “how to end their lives safely.” The movement to control life and death seems to be increasing." When you observe the suffering of the ill and aging, it is understandable why people are considering these options. However, as Christians, we need to cling to the idea that our Lord has given us life on earth and will take it, as you said, when He is ready, and that any suffering we endure will be soon forgotten when, as Mercy Me says in their song, "He finally takes me home." -H