There is a push in this nation to see Euthanasia legalized, as it has been in Holland, As Christians we must take a strong stand to protect life at all costs.
I recently took the funeral of a man who had been in hospital for nearly three months suffering. Five weeks before he died he went through a very low patch and was at that stage very much at the point of death. There were some unresolved family issues and if he had died at this point, as the proponents of Euthanasia would have him do, there would not have been the closure in death that has come because he lived a little longer.
It was heartening to hear a family member at the funeral say, “Dad made peace with us all before he died” Because Jesus is Lord of all He must also be Lord over our time to die. Our friend told me that He had an encounter with the Lord in His low point, and it was this encounter that allowed him to die in great peace. If Euthanasia was legal perhaps out of compassion someone may have denied a family restoration. God is indeed sovereign, and as Proverbs says, “there is a time to live and a time to die”; only God has the right to make the final decision on the time, because he alone knows what needs to take place in the hearts of those involved before they depart.
We have been given assurances by all pushing euthanasia that there will be many safeguards, and that it is only for those in great pain with no chance of recovery. I recently read an article, which although English, it is very relevant to New Zealand. I quote from the article “When abortion was legalized in Britain in 1967 we were assured of the safeguards. Abortions would be carried out, we were told only if the continuation of the pregnancy involved risk to the life of the mother. Thirty five years on and five million abortions later, what do those safeguards count for now?
How the reformers scoffed when they were warned in that the 1967 abortion act was just the thin edge of the wedge. And how they scoff now when they are warned that the legalization of euthanasia will be the beginning of the end of all respect for the lives of the old and the ill. But already the vote of the Dutch has fundamentally changed the relationship between doctors and patient, more than 10000 people have started carrying documents begging doctors not to kill them if they fall ill. The fear expressed by American lawyer Alexander Capron, has become real for the people of Holland: “I never want to have to wonder whether the Doctor coming into my hospital room is wearing the white coat of the healer or the black hood of the executioner”’.
19 "I call heaven and earth to witness against you that today I have set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Oh, that you would choose life; that you and your children might live!
20 Choose to love the Lord your God and to obey him and to cling to him, for he is your life and the length of your days.
Christians it is easy to be swayed by human feelings and compassion but we must remind ourselves that God knows best, and He is the one who is always at work in the lives of Men & Woman; while there is breath there is hope.
Make sure that your MP knows how you feel, because if we don’t stand up today, tomorrow you may be an undesirable burden on society, remember Aldolf Hitler?
