Today, tremendous controversy and intense debate surrounds the topic of assisted suicide and end-of-life questions. Obviously, many terminally ill people wish to die. And sometimes, their children or others with financial motives may encourage them. Unquestionably, people in horrific medical conditions without realistic hope of recovery presents some very difficult ethical issues - and for Christians, especially. Particularly so today, as medical advances and technology now have the ability to keep people artificially hovering in bodies that would otherwise die. I don't know how many of you have faced this question with a parent or loved-one. I have. My dad was horrifically sick and had heart failure, between the ambulance and the emergency room. But the doctors were able to restart his heart. And yet, his brainscans showed no activity. Only a ventilator was keeping him alive. So, my brothers and sisters agreed that we needed to let dad die. It's what he would have wanted, would be natural, and he had zero chance of recovery. Others in this situation may not have as clearcut a situation - as perhaps there may be realistic hope for recovery, apart from machinery.
Some people with seemingly unrecoverable conditions or terrible chronic pain wish to commit suicide with medical / technical assistance. And 25 years ago, this was a virtually unthinkable thing, that doctors sworn to "do no harm" would help bring about a patient's death. Some may remember Dr. Kevorkian, a U.S. pathologist who was convicted in 1999 of murder as he assisted in a suicide (actually, he said he had helped 130 people end their lives). Fast-forward to the present, around the world, assisted euthanasia has become legal in many places. And in the U.S., eight states currently have laws that allow it: New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont, Colorado, California, Hawaii
So, where are the Biblical principles and line for keeping people alive? Many suffer in pain that should be much more effectively managed and treated. This is an important ethical question for people of faith!
Here, apologist and Pastor Mike Winger describes his own experience, as well as talks about Biblical-based ethics for end-of-life, as well as the issue of assisted suicide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRuhjgsio-0&t=29s
And here are some thoughts on the issue from Sean McDowell: [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmsz_piD518[/url]
And here are some additional viewpoints from GotQuestions.org: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLrWXpIckDk