Now, Flip the Coin Over

In the last post, regarding voluntary euthanasia I asked the following questions:

What's the difference between one shot of adrenalin that results in cardiac arrest and forty years of chicken fried steaks that result in cardiac arrest? What's the difference in one lethal dose of poison and a lifetime of smoking cigarettes? What's the difference in a terminally ill person walking off a cliff and a mountain climber who fails to inspect equipment and ends up at the bottom of the cliff? Don't all of these result in death? Don't we know that chicken fried steak, cigarettes and faulty climbing equipment will most certainly kill the body? What about the belief that God gave us life and it's not our right to end that life? Why do we call it "taking a life" when we do it in one shot and we call it "living a life" when we do it over a period of 30 or 40 years?

I expect some dissent. I expect that some of my friends will not agree with me. I expect that most, if not all of that dissent will be based on the "God gives us this life and we don't have the right to interfere with God's plan" argument. I've heard that even if we are incapacitated that we don't know what God has planned for us and we don't know what good work God might accomplish through our incapacity and therefore we should not end the life, no matter how miserable, because God's plans might suffer a setback. Now, for the other side of the argument.

If that is your moral framework then why medicate at all? Why then do surgery to remove the inflamed appendix or the infected tonsils? Why prescribe medication to reduce pain and relieve suffering? Could not the suffering be a "thorn in the flesh" that brings us closer to God? If it's interfering with God's plan to end a life, then is it not interfering with God's plan to extend a life? Isn't it hypocritical to take Tylenol to end your suffering with a headache and then argue that the suffering of a quadriplegic cannot be ended by causing the body to die? Isn't one medical interference with the body the same as another?

As for God's involvement... let me remind you of God's plan for this world. God made the garden. God wanted to walk and talk with us. God wanted to watch us enjoy the earth He created for us. God wanted to be close to us. The world we live in is fallen and broken and God's original desire for His relationship with us changed. Pain and suffering are not key elements of God's original plan.

In our culture, eating a dog is reviled. Something about it just seems wrong... we can't quite put our finger on what it is. We think maybe it's because dogs are smart... but pigs are actually smarter and we have no trouble eating pork. We think maybe it's because dogs are cuter than pigs but really a cow is quite a gentle and beautiful animal and we have no trouble eating beef.

Voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide are sort of like eating dog meat. We're not sure why we have a hard time with it, we just know we do. Logically, voluntary euthanasia makes sense but we still have trouble swallowing. Walk with God. Talk with God. And like many men and women before you, pray that He returns before you have to decide.