Posted on 11/01/2014 11:34:33 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
It’s November 1, the day Brittany Maynard vowed to kill herself. The 29-year-old California woman says she no longer finds life worth living after being diagnosed this past spring with stage 4 glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor.
Brittany has become the poster girl for “Compassion & Choices, ” a so-called “end-of-life choice” advocacy organization that is fighting to increase the number of stateS with so-called “Death With Dignity” laws on the books.
The model is Oregon, the state to which Brittany relocated this past summer because her home state of California doesn’t allow physician-assisted suicide (at least for now).
Oregon is one of five states – along with Montana, Washington, New Mexico and Vermont – that allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication to patients like Brittany, diagnosed with terminal illnesses, longing for a premature death.
And Compassion & Choices has campaigns underway underway in four other states to legalize euthanasia – Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts and, of course, California (so terminally ill residents like Brittany don’t have to go all the way to Oregon to kill themselves).
If the pro-euthanasia movement succeeds in nearly doubling the number of states with “Death With Dignity” laws, it will only be a matter of time before physician-assisted suicide is routine throughout the county – like physician-assisted abortion.
Indeed, just as Planned Parenthood soft-pedals abortion as “reproductive health care,” Compassion & Choices portrays euthanasia as end-of-life “comfort and control.”
And they are shamelessly exploiting terminally ill Brittany, casting her as the face of the euthanasia movement and even setting up The Brittany Maynard Fund not to benefit her family – she and her recently-wed husband are childless – but to raise money to further Compassion & Choices’ political advocacy.
Well, as a Christ follower who this very year was a pallbearer at his 83-year-old father-in-law’s funeral, who had no moral qualms with the family’s decision not to resuscitate him when he drew his last breath, I have nothing but empathy for those who find themselves in similar situations.
But it’s one thing to allow a natural death, and quite another to actively terminate life, as in the case of euthanasia.
Indeed, God’s precious gift of life is cheapened when we send off the terminally ill, like Brittany, to a hasty death.
If we accept euthanasia today for those diagnosed with six months to live, do we accept it tomorrow for anyone with a terminal illness – cancer, Alzheimer’s, whatever – no matter how far they may be from death’s door?
Is it hard to imagine Compassion & Choices one day begging the question why the “comfort and choice” of euthanasia should be limited strictly to those with terminal illnesses?
What about those of weakened mind or sinew who feel that their quality of life has so deteriorated that death would be welcome?
And why should euthanasia be restricted to adults only? What about the infant suffering from a fatal illness? Why not put the child out of his or her misery?
Because life is sacred, as the Scripture reminds.
“Do you not know,” the Apostle Paul wrote, “that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? You are not our own. You were bought with a price.”
Wow.. The bad hominem attacks happening in here remind me of those coming from rabid liberals posting to Politico.
Indeed, we must examine ourselves to bring a clean heart before God, in order to preserve fellowship with Him on a daily basis.
This is different than the judicial judgement upon Christ that is applied to each believer at the moment of salvation. Both our nature as sinners and all our sins were judicially dealt with at the cross and we were declared righteous in Him. It is on this basis alone - not works - that a Christian is sealed by the Holy Spirit to salvation.
"Having been declared righteous, then, by faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have the access by the faith into this grace in which we have stood, and we boast on the hope of the glory of God." (Romans 5:1,2)
Who is playing God now, and what are you using to make such a distinction? What verse are you relying on to send one to hell and give the other a pass? What’s that? There isn’t one? So it’s just your imagining, huh. And how Christian of you to be the one to start the name calling.
You can NOT be that stupid....
I left off the sarc tag.
This subject has been debated before on FR and the upshot I got was that heaven is almost entirely staffed by and otherwise composed of suicides.
I attempted suicide a number of years ago. I was mentally ill. Am I condemned to hell?
I see salvation happening at the end of our journey in this life. I have seen far too many 'born again' folks fall away - they were 'sealed' for nothing. I also see living my faith as 'works' - doing, as the Lord taught:
Matt 7:24 "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall." 28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
It would appear you major point is that she is being used and lies promoted.
Beyond that, the situation reminds me of:
Luk 13:4 And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem?
Luk 13:5 No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.”
where Jesus says in essence, you don’t worry about them, you worry about you.
where Jesus says in essence, you don’t worry about them, you worry about you.
Please ignore her. She’s a loon, and has proven herself so on multiple threads.
Somebody ending her life in an effort to save others is not what this woman is doing. She is not jumping on a grenade. Nor is she faced with the issues with which the 9/11 jumpers were. This woman has the choice of overdosing on drugs for a quick ending, or living with pain management drugs until the end. To me, there is a difference.
Well said Benito.
It’s sad how some lick their chops over the misery of others. Whether she has fallen under the influence of someone or has reached the conclusion of her own accord, it is between her and God AND NO OTHER.
I pity those whose notions of piety have them so tied up in knots to the point where they take it upon themselves to condemn the souls of their fellow humans.
I’ll take my faith in God over their religion any day.
Who said it is what God wants? I merely said none of us are in a position to judge her.
We are supposed to judge, so we can know right from wrong.
So then the soldier who jumps on a grenade is not going to heaven according to you.
Well said.
Logic 101: Ad hominem attacks are NOT a way to win a debate.
To paraphrase Groucho Marx: I would never be a member of any religion which has you as a member.
Studebaker was the best vehicle ever built period..
If they truly fall away, they were not sealed. Simple mental assent of the truth of Christ doesn't save. Satan believes in that simple sense. He is not saved from the judgment that will befall him. Entrusting oneself to Christ alone brings salvation. Only God knows who has done this. Only God will reveal this in the last day.
BUT, God makes it clear we can KNOW we have eternal life now.
"These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. (I John 5:13)"Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24)
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