Every life is valuable. A socialized healthcare system must choose to operate on those who are able to be the most productive in society. Otherwise, society shuts down. If your day-to-day workers can’t work, bad things begin to happen. So, the elderly, the disabled, those under working age…anyone who does not currently have a job is pushed to a later date. There are stories of people waiting for a year for a knee replacement or for cancer treatment. But the lesson here goes much deeper than long wait lines for operations.
The Canadian government is valuing life less and less. In 2022, 13,102 people died under their Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) laws. That’s over 4% of total deaths occurring in physician assisted suicide. The percent should be 0%. And it is rising. Why? Because people without Christ have no hope. A terminal diagnosis has the ability to snuff out a will to live, especially when the country makes it legal, comfortable and increasingly easy to kill yourself. And the line keeps getting pushed. One man applied to be killed because of hearing loss. The head of the ALS society of Canada says that one in four ALS patients choose MAID. MAID is being offered to veterans who call to apply for benefits. The slide is inevitable. Once the right to life is sidelined, death just gets closer and closer.
Why should this matter to Christians? We should always be the champions for life. Humans are made in God’s image and put on this earth for a specified amount of time. That alone should be cause enough for us to halt any attempt to shorten life. But there’s more. We all face life after death. I do not believe suicide is the unpardonable sin, but I do believe when someone is offered the chance to die and runs to it, there is a strong misunderstanding on their part of the value of life.
Here's the deal, Christians do not exist on an island. By design and purpose, we never will. We are called to be salt and light in a world that is dark and bland. By our presence and work we ‘wake up’ a world gone to sleep. If we choose to ‘go with the flow,’ we deny our purpose as Christ followers. If we choose to just be silent when it comes to controversial issues like this, we condemn people to Hell. I don’t want to be party to a government that kills people in peacetime for no more reason than a “loss of ability to engage in meaningful life activities,” which is the criteria used to qualify for MAID. How many depressed, lonely, anxious or even impatient individuals would willingly check a box like that? Christians must shout loudly that every human has purpose and value…AND THEN we must be clear about that purpose.
The message of the Bible isn’t love people to death. The message we preach and live is love people by serving them, showing compassion to them, encouraging them…so that they can SEE God and come to KNOW Him. I will remind you of Jesus words in John 15. He told His followers to love people as He loved them; love them to the point of laying down your life for them. Hold the phone! Jesus told us to be wiling to die for those we love? You bet. And there is a huge difference between a fearful soul seeking death for themselves as release and a courageous soul being willing to face death so another can have the gift of life. Is this not, at least in part, exactly what Jesus did for us? Yes, it is!
When it comes to election time in November, ask questions of the candidates about their value and treatment of life from the womb to the grave. Seek to understand why they choose the positions they choose. Pay attention to their rhetoric when it comes to the lives of those they are called to serve. The question I ask every time is “Who acts more like Jesus? Which candidate has more of the character we see in the Word?” For me, this is done on a case by case basis, not across party lines. We aren’t electing a party to office. We’re electing a person. And I can promise you, the life of the candidate matters to them.