How to think about Assisted Suicide as a Christian

Assisted Suicide is a deeply personal topic for many people; almost everyone has been affected by death, or seen a loved one suffer. As Christians, we believe that suffering is an evil: it is a sign of something that has gone wrong in this world, and it will be banished from God’s new creation. We want to alleviate it as much as we can. And we worship a Jesus who wept at his friend’s tomb and who was deeply troubled at the suffering of those around him (the Greek word the Gospel-writers normally use literally means he ‘felt it in his guts’), who didn’t just heal the sick, but sent his disciples out to do the same.

But as Christians, we also want to make wise decisions which will help everyone, as people made in the ‘image of God’, to flourish. We want to tell the world a better story for all, including those at the end of their lives, who are just as valuable as the rest of us; for we believe in a God who gives life and destroys death, a God who who defends the weak and the vulnerable, and a God who loves us intimately and wants the best for us.

Advocates for Assisted Suicide normally say one of three things: it provides dignity, it gives us autonomy, and it reduces suffering. Each of those aims are good aims in and of themselves. Yet when those aims are elevated to become the ‘ultimate goods’, rather than being kept in balance and being examined within a broader Biblical framework, we are left with an impoverished view of what it means to be fully human and what it means to be in community.

Many people are afraid of dying without dignity, with their capacity in mind or body in decline. The philosopher Frederick Nietzsche put it like this: “I want to die proudly when it is no longer possible to live properly.” We completely understand the impulse behind this: the Bible is completely realistic about the difficulties we face in old age, and how our bodies begin to fail us (just read Ecclesiastes 12).

But as Christians, we don’t believe that anyone’s worth or value is determined by their body or their mind, or what they can or can no longer do. Everyone has a dignity which is innate and inherent and infinite, made in the ‘image of God’ (Genesis 1:27) simply by being human. GK Chesterton once wrote, “People are equal in the same way pennies are equal. Some are bright, others are dull; some are worn smooth, others are sharp and fresh. But all are equal in value for each penny bears the image of the sovereign; each person bears the image of the King of Kings.” No one is worth any more - or less - than anyone else, from the highest king to the smallest baby.

Others worry about suffering; perhaps even more than they do about dying. Stories are told by pro-assisted suicide campaigners about people dying in pain, or amid ‘unbearable suffering’, and they make the argument it is not compassionate for force people to suffer in this way; we treat our pets better than this, they say.

We all want to reduce suffering. That is why at CARE we are such strong advocates for palliative care, which means that in the vast majority of cases, death can be dignified and pain can be managed. We do not believe in artificially keeping people alive when they are in pain: the great church leader Martin Lloyd Jones eventually refused further treatment in hospital, saying to the doctors, ‘You are keeping me from glory’.

But we do not believe in actively ending life, which is what assisted suicide entails. When Elijah said to God, “I have had enough, Lord. Take my life” (1 Kings 19:4), God relieved his suffering and gave him food and water and rest. The doctor and Christian ethicist John Wyatt writes: “Biblical thought always draws a distinction between removing suffering and removing the sufferer.”

Others want to feel in control, at a time of life when it feels like we are losing it. The actor Sir Patrick Stewart once said: “We have no control over how we arrive in the world but at the end of life we should have control over how we leave it.” And freedom and liberty are good things. But they are not the ultimate good. There are, rightly, limits to human freedom. As Christians, we believe that life is ultimately a gift from God, who not only creates life, but also sustains and preserves, and even takes away, life.

Life and existence are not of our own making, but God’s. The prophet Jeremiah declared: “I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own” (Jeremiah 10:23). Indeed, as Christians, we believe that not only are we created by God, but that he lives inside us as believers through his Holy Spirit: what we do with our bodies matters. We are not our own, but we are temples of the Spirit, “bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20), and we are to steward our physical bodies accordingly.

John Stott wrote in ‘Issues Facing Christians Today’, “The proper name for this frame of mind is not autonomy but hubris, presumption before God. Although the lines of demarcation between God’s responsibility and ours are not always sharp, and although God does call us into a privileged partnership with himself, yet we human beings may not trespass into his territory or assume his prerogatives.”

‘No man is an island’: we do not exist in isolation, and one person’s actions do have repercussions for another. Western society may have made its ultimate virtue human freedom and human autonomy, but we are not fully free. Even those who don’t believe that we are not free to behave how we like when it harms others or the world around us.

The introduction of assisted suicide legislation would not be safe for many people; they would not feel in control. Its introduction undermines regular suicide prevention efforts, a number of disabled people have voiced their concerns about being made to feel like they are a drain on society, and many would feel under pressure to take their own lives, whether for relational or even financial reasons, as has been the case in Canada.

As Christians, we know that God has a special heart for the vulnerable, whether it be the widow, the orphan, the foreigner or the poor. We often come back to Proverbs 31:8-9: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

At CARE, we do not believe that introducing Assisted Suicide is the right move for our society. Indeed, we believe it would actually put people in danger. While the impulse behind it might be a compassionate one, it is our conviction that God’s word truly can lead us towards a better story, once which protects life, which values those who are elderly or experience illness or disability, and safeguards those who are vulnerable.