Are you in or out? That is the question for hospitals across the state of Washington, as each one determines its policy on the “Death with Dignity Act” passed through voter initiative (Initiative 1000) last November. The Act went into effect last week, 120 days after the election.
The trend in America allowing individuals, primarily licensed physicians, to legally counsel and assist a patient in ending his or her life is alarming. However, this law and view of life is a logical follow-on to legalized abortion and the categorization of unwanted or undesired life. If our nation’s laws permit a licensed physician to counsel and perform an abortion–ending a baby’s life–for pragmatic reasons, why would not the next logical right declared in law permit licensed physicians to assist those wanting to end their lives through suicide?
Our nation’s inclination toward death over life is troubling and drastic. In the days before Initiative 1000, one opinion writer called upon “responsible citizens” to disregard emotions and vote with “logical minds.” He continued, “Our feelings cannot be allowed to govern other people’s rights. If a human being is suffering, they have the right to ease that suffering through whatever means are available to them,” including ending one’s life with the aid of a licensed physician.
I suggest those in favor of this legislation are in fact the ones voting with their emotions, choosing death because they are emotionally unable to deal with the discomfort and thought of possibly dying in six months or less. Yet, what about our logical minds?
The logical mind inquires into what principles and policies underlie this radical law, departing from our people’s declared unalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. When did a right to Death creep into our purview? The logical mind remembers America’s ‘can do’ attitude of triumphing over trials and facing hardship with dignity–not surrendering to hopelessness and quitting. The logical mind asks, “Can I trust a licensed physician to treat me for a potentially fatal disease when I know he believes at some point I should conclude that I have no hope and should kill myself with his assistance?”
Policies and laws impact the views of the people. When our nation took the step to permit abortions, it began to degrade our citizen’s view and value of life. With Oregon and now the state of Washington accepting that some people are better off killing themselves, our nation faces a critical point of evaluating the logical steps to follow.
Yes, Americans need to be responsible citizens and use their logical minds. They must realize the individual with terminal illness or the woman with an unwanted pregnancy may have difficulty looking beyond the challenges of the day. People in these emotionally-laden positions should not be counseled out of desperateness into hastening death. On the contrary, these individuals need realistic encouragement to face the difficulties ahead and to be given hope for life tomorrow. Death is a certainty of life, but the timing and means of death are not decisions to rest on the shoulders of human beings. Rather, they should be left to the Creator in whom our unalienable rights originate.
