Euthanasia

Dr. Kevorkian may the name most often connected to assisted suicide, having spent some time in prison convicted of manslaughter.  He had been on a mission for years promoting that humane death is a gift and a right.  Today many states debate this and some have already allowed it with many conditions.  It is already legal in some countries of our world.

The Bible clearly teaches that human life is sacred.  After all we are “created in God’s own image!”  God’s breath (spirit) of life is in us.  Life is God’s to give and God’s to take and must be considered of ultimate value. In this respect it must never be only about the quality of life, or the length of life, but of life itself.  Life alone is of value.  The Bible states, “I walk before the Lord in the land of the living,” “I kept my faith, even when I said I am greatly afflicted,” “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His holy ones.”
These Biblical ideas tell us that we are creations of God with our origin in the heart of God, with our meaning, past and present, eternally founded in God who created us.  The Bible is clear.  It is not about quality of life, the usefulness of life, or a pain free life, or the length of life.  It is always about life itself described as such by the God who gives it to us and proclaims its value in the creation “It is good” and not in the circumstances.  Since human life extends from the creator God, then any human life is of equal value.

What does the United Methodist Book of Discipline say?
“The Church does not endorse the enlistment of medical providers who are charged to cure and to care; to assist people in the taking of their own lives…We believe that suicide is not the way human life should end.”

In the United Methodist Church we are against euthanasia in any circumstances for any reason, whether the party involved can decide for themselves, or it is decided for them.

There are few slopes as slippery as this one.  When the value of life is decided by quality or lack of quality, and ended on that basis, then we find ourselves in a relative area where life can be taken for reasons decided by a changing and evolving culture. The danger is obvious.  In the First United Methodist Church of Mansfield we teach the value of life itself.  This is not an idea founded in relativity, but in God our creator and in God’s book the Bible.    The value of life is not based upon quality, purpose, length, or usefulness.  It is based upon the sacredness of life itself as created by God.  Science, philosophy, nor government should decide when life should end.  This should be decided by the giver of life, God.  But this does not negate the sensitivity of a family who has a loved one on life support and the time a decision must come about removing the life support or enacting a Do Not Resuscitate order.  This is a time that often comes and we must each surround with love, faith, and prayer as we enter these difficult seasons.