Job 1:21 "And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."

Physicians in the 21^st Century have a vast armamentarium to deal with pain, nausea and many symptoms that may accompany the last days, weeks &/or months in a patient with a terminal illness. Also, those people afflicted with a "Neuro-Chemical Imbalance" causing severe depression can have great hope in effective treatments that are now available. It is a time when caring treatment and Christian charity can be given by the physician or health care givers to those with these great needs. It is so sad that these two groups of people are the ones that most often receive "help" in committing suicide. As Physicians we should offer compassion and care, not death and killing.

In the last 5 years, the number of persons killing themselves with lethel prescriptions in Oregon has reportedly doubled. There are probably many more that go unreported in that state. According to Dr. Jonathon Imbody of the Christian Medical Association Senior Policy Department, there are several reasons to assume this:

1. Oregon’s assisted suicide law actually prevents concerned citizens, the media or watchdog groups from examining individual cases. The law stipulates "the information collected shall not be a public record and may not be made available for inspection by the public." With Oregon’s health care reputation on the line, can we really expect assisted suicide scandals to show up in the state’s sterile statistics?
   
   
2. Where assisted suicide and euthanasia have been legalized elsewhere, as in the Netherlands, it has produced a culture of lethal arrogance within the medical profession. Studies reveal that Dutch doctors give lethal injections to roughly a thousand patients a year with no explicit request to do so from the patients. I have personally interviewed still grieving family members whose loved ones tragically lost their lives to a runaway medical system sheltered in a euthanasia entrenched government.
   
   
3. Financial inducements strongly favor ending a terminally ill patient’s life prematurely. Don’t expect health insurance companies, state health insurance bureaucrats or unscrupulous heirs to lobby for palliative care when assisted suicide gets right to the bottom line.

The secretive suicide scheme in Oregon poses a dangerous departure for caring Christian principles. It is also alien to reasonable democratic principles and government protection of its most vulnerable citizens. In light of the tragic euthanasia purges of last century, the notion of state-sponsored, medically induced death under a veil of secrecy should be anything but comforting.

Psalm 23:4 "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

This page has been displayed 1 times this month, 39 times since October 11, 2008 .