Our society is conflicted about death. If there is a rash of suicides among young people who chose to take their own life, we talk about the need for suicide prevention. But if someone is sick, one might say they are courageous in deciding to end their life through MAID (medical assistance in dying).
While each of these terms have their own nuances, MAID is sometimes called physician assisted suicide, physician assisted dying, or euthanasia.
MAID has been legal across Canada since 2016.
A Few Key Issues Regarding MAID
While I’ve addressed this topic in an Ethics course I’ve taught for a number of years, I did some teaching on the subject again this summer. Some key points that continue to stand out to me are that:
- Many in our society make their ethical decisions (in general) based on what feels right to them, or what seems to give them their desired outcome, rather than taking into account what God might say.
- From the perspective of the Scripture, we don’t have a right to do whatever we want with our bodies. Therefore, we don’t have a “right do die.”
- Since every human being is made in the image of God, every human always has value and dignity. Therefore, controlling the timing or manner of our our death doesn’t give us any more dignity.
If you would like to hear more of my thinking on the subject, I invite you to listen to the audio from the session here:
You can download the mp3 audio file by RIGHT clicking here.
Other Pentecostal Resources
You might also consider looking at these resources from Pentecostal organizations:
- “Sanctity of Human Life: Suicide, Physician-Assisted Suicide, and Euthanasia” (by the Assemblies of God, USA)
- “Dignity of Human Life” (by the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada)
None of what you will find above is distinctly Pentecostal as such, but these sources do reflect how many Pentecostals are thinking about this topic.
While not reflecting exclusively Pentecostal organizations, you might also take a look at the “Declaration Against Euthanasia an Assisted Suicide” from The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (the latter group includes Pentecostal affiliates).
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Andrew K. Gabriel, Ph.D., is the author of Simply Spirit-Filled: Experiencing God in the Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit as well as three academic books, including The Lord is the Spirit. He is a theology professor and VP of Academics at Horizon College and Seminary and serves on the Theological Study Commission for the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. You can follow him on Facebook or on Twitter.
I so appreciated your teaching this summer at MBRC. I have pointed several people to the recordings of those sessions posted on the MBRC website, particularly the ones on LGBTQ+ and the one on MAID. Thank-you for helping us address and work through some of the hard questions.
Thanks, Ruth. I plan on posting some more material from those sessions in coming weeks.
That audio clip is worth listening to. Thanks for posting it.
My God, your arguments, statement, and litigations against end of life needs are steeped in generalities and obviously your life biases. Son you need to walk a mile in the shoes of those who live each day in debilitating pain.
You pastor are a fool
Frank, it sounds like you might be experiencing some suffering yourself. For that, I offer you my sympathy and a prayer on your behalf.
If you haven’t yet listened to the audio, I would encourage you to do so.
I am someone who has struggled with mental illness, suicidal thoughts, and chronic pain. As someone who walks in those “shoes” I agree with Andrew and am glad that Maid wasn’t available for me 4 or 5 years ago at my worst because I would have seriously thought about taking that option.
I don’t think God desires anyone to suffer and most human suffering can’t be blamed on God. I can see why someone who is terminally ill may desire the Maid option, and although it is not for me to judge them for taking the option, if asked, I would believe as Andrew does.
This is such a difficult subject and understandably one many avoid.so thank you!
I don’t agree with euthanasia for the reasons you mentioned but I remember reading about a doctor in my European country where euthanasia has been legal for decades who said he was called out at night by the panicking wife of a patient suffering from terminal cancer of the oesophagus. He was actually drowning in his own fluid. !
The doctor was a Christian and disagreed vehemently with euthanasia, had never until then administered it, but he could not watch anyone drown in front of his eyes he said, it was too horrific. This patient had been on successful pain medication, ( the doctor noticed once pain was under control most people wanted to live) he had never asked for euthanasia, but now literally slowly drowning which could not be reversed.
Since reading that I realised , as the doctor did, nothing was cut and dry, and there may be cases such as this when the actual dying process needs help depending upon the circumstances.
What would I do ?