A COVENANT WITH DEATH

All Scripture references are to the Anglicised New International Version, unless stated otherwise

Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the grave will not stand.

Isaiah 28: 18

ROBERT COWIE made the headlines in 2011 after his assisted suicide at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland. Paralysed from the neck down from a swimming accident, he travelled to Zurich with his mother to end the torment of a life robbed of movement.

One-hundred and eighty-two Britons have ended their lives at the clinic since it opened in 1998. The statistics show a steep increase in the number of Britons on the clinic’s register; this despite the widespread availability of palliative care and hospice services in Britain. Cowie’s case aroused greater controversy, as he was young and healthy. Those who use the intervention of Dignitas are mostly the elderly and those who suffer from degenerative illnesses, such as Alzheimer’s disease or multiple sclerosis. The clinic’s motto is ‘To live with dignity to die with dignity’; it claims to offer a way to evade the mental and physical degradation that accompanies such conditions.

Hope for the Living

Others, despite their sufferings, opt to continue their lives. Stephen Hawking, the world-renowned physicist, was diagnosed with a form of motor neurone disease at the age of 21. The doctors gave him three years to live, so he determined to put all his strength into his work. Although his infirmity has confined him to a wheelchair and he has lost his voice, he recently celebrated his seventieth birthday.

In response to an interview question on euthanasia Hawking replied: -

The victim should have the right to end his life, if he wants. But I think it would be a great mistake. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.

Hawkins's strong intellect sustains and invigorates his mind, though his physical strength deteriorates. His is not the only example. Thousands in the United Kingdom face a daily battle to persevere through their illnesses and infirmities. For many of the disabled and their families there is no choice but to live a positive affirmation of the strength of spirit with which God endowed the human race.

A Right to Die

The average lifespan of the population, and the likelihood of age-related illnesses, has focused interest on the question of euthanasia. Modern medicine has the power to alleviate the symptoms of many diseases, yet the surgery and the drugs cannot deliver the quality of life that brings contentment. This is perhaps most manifest in cases of dementia where the very personality of the one affected is lost.

For the spouses and families involved, the burden of care is made heavier by the anger and frustration of the sufferer. The symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, the disorientation, mood changes, memory loss and impaired use of language, conspire to erase the essential faculties of the mind. Sir Terry Pratchett, journalist and novelist, publicly announced his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s in 2007. He joined with the BBC in making a documentary of his experiences. Pratchett used the short film to put forward his case for the right under British law to choose the time and manner of his own death.

His father’s long deterioration with pancreatic cancer persuaded Pratchett that individuals alone, and not government regulations, should determine the time and manner of death. He describes the last weeks of his father’s life as a slow and ugly battle between the cancer and the medicine. Modern science can sustain the body after the mind has ceased to function. Pratchett would have preferred his father and family to have been spared the suffering that came in the days after the final farewells.

Although Pratchett’s call for a self-directed end to life was viewed sympathetically by many, the notion of euthanasia as a widespread legally-sanctioned practice rouses horror in others. Under British law, euthanasia is illegal under the Suicide Act. To aid, abet, counsel or procure the suicide of another is a criminal offence. These laws are derived from a system of ethics founded on Britain’s broadly Christian tradition and the sanctity of human life.

God the Giver of Life

The creation of Adam by God is distinctly different from the other forms of life. While animals developed along the lines of their prescribed species, the first man, Adam, received life directly from God. The account in Genesis 2: 7 states:

The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

A gift from God, this vital energy was passed on from Adam to his children. Though man’s right to life had been forfeited by his sin of disobedience, and he had been condemned to die, God forbad murder (unlawful killing). He even spared from revenge Cain, who had assassinated his brother, Abel (Genesis 4: 15). The Law of Moses condemns the taking of innocent lives (Exodus 20: 13). Jesus goes further, teaching that murder begins in the heart (Matthew 15: 18, 19).

Suffering Faithfully Unto Death

Job, a patriarch of Old Testament times, had his faith severely tested by God. Afflicted with painful sores over his entire body, and reviled as a social outcast, Job lamented: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away’ (Job 1: 20, 21). Because of his faith, Job could appreciate God’s goodness at work even though deprived of any tangible sign of it.

Men and women of Job-like faith, holding onto the value and sanctity of life, recoil from suicide, though they may in extreme distress contemplate it. Such persistence in the face of suffering is born of a hope in the unseen God and the promise of eternal life.

A Severe Mercy

Not everyone has an equal measure of faith (2 Thessalonians 3: 2). Any who do not accept the Bible’s authority are excluded from the Scriptural promises of Divine intervention in their living and dying. Perhaps it is no coincidence that as Christian belief is eroded, the determination of many to accept and endure old age, with all its complications, erodes with it. From the standpoint of the secular philosophy of ‘survival of the fittest’, what purpose is served by prolonging a life with no future? Which is why, as a general rule, the controversy over euthanasia divides along lines of faith: seen as wrong by most Christians and viewed as a human right by most unbelievers.

‘Ye Are All Gods’

Advances in our understanding of life’s cogs and springs, accompanied by the technology to apply this knowledge to the repair and sustaining of life, has encouraged reckless claims. The discovery of DNA, the function of chromosomes and stem cells, and their ability to renew dying organs, leads some to assert that eternal life can be achieved by gene therapy. Indeed, gifted surgeons and medical practitioners can appear god-like. Nonetheless, for those with an untreatable terminal illness, the issues of life and death are reduced to a battle between the assertion of the right to die and the law of the land, which denies it.

The consecrated Christian is usually spared this dilemma. There is no biblical text which explicitly forbids suicide, but the Christian has committed his or her life to the Lord, and to take it or to encourage someone else to do so would be to renege on the contract of trust which underlies consecration. God promises His children, ‘never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’ (Hebrews 13: 5). The promise is valid from the moment we put our complete trust in Him, to the last minute of life.

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