Rev. David Holwick L Current Controversies #1
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 3, 2005
Job 3:11-26
CHOOSING DEATH
I. A week of significant deaths.
A. Pope John Paul II deteriorated before our eyes.
1) The Vatican was unusually open about sharing details.
a) Usually popes are said to be in "excellent health" and
then they suddenly die.
2) The ethics of dying were important to him.
a) Heroic measures like respirators do not have to be
required.
b) But food and water are normal necessities and should
never be withheld, according to his encyclical.
B. The long-running tragedy of Terri Schiavo.
1) Unusual case in that she was young, and survived by both
husband and parents.
a) Added details of medical lawsuits, adultery and
feuding between families.
2) More typical - step-mother Mary Ann and her dying mother.
a) Siblings fought over "pulling the plug."
b) Probably every family here will face this issue.
C. What does the Bible say?
1) The Bible knows nothing about respirators or feeding tubes.
2) But there are many principles in it about the value of
life and our attitude toward death.
3) What shapes your attitude - the teaching of the Bible, or
the slippery slope of society's ethics?
II. Our society's evolving standards.
A. A series of tragic cases.
1) Thirty years ago in New Jersey - Karen Quinlan.
a) Young girl used drugs and alcohol at the same time and
went into a coma.
b) Vegetative state, parents requested she be removed from
respirator.
1> She was fed, however, and lived several more years.
2) Nancy Cruzan, 25, in a vegetative state after a car crash.
a) Parents wanted to remove feeding tube, and Supreme
Court finally allowed it.
b) Only difference with Schiavo is conflict within the
family.
B. Dr. Kevorkian and Physician Assisted Suicide.
1) A progression from the terminally ill, to the disabled,
to the merely depressed.
2) One of his final patients played tennis the day before
he helped her kill herself.
3) Several states now allow doctor-assisted suicide.
III. The key issues.
A. Personal autonomy is increasingly valued.
1) Thirty years ago, doctors made your life-and-death
decisions and you couldn't do much about it.
2) Today, we want total control over these decisions.
B. Medical treatments have advanced.
1) 100 years ago, the role of doctors was to tell your family
what you died of.
2) Now, they can extend your life with machines and medicine.
a) Even when there is no reasonable hope of recovery.
C. Moral standards have shifted.
1) Bible is no longer the supreme moral authority for many.
2) Other philosophies get our attention - Utilitarianism.
a) Only useful lives are worth living.
b) What about the aged, invalids, the retarded?
Robert Destro works for the Catholic League for Religious
Civil Rights.
His job now focuses almost full-time on cases involving
treatment given to the disabled.
One in particular jolted his conscience.
A young California boy with Down syndrome needed a heart
operation.
But the boy's father wanted to withhold treatment.
Why fix the heart value? the father asked.
The boy was retarded.
Destro was outraged.
"Are we going to stand by and watch this child die of
medical neglect simply because he's retarded?" he asked.
Unbelievably, the state of California sided with the boy's
father.
A historical note: "Zyklon B," the poison gas used in the
Nazi concentration camps, was first perfected in
institutions for the retarded.
# 29292
3) The cutting edge in the Netherlands.
a) Euthanasia (the good death) has been practiced quietly
for some time, but now is openly legal.
b) In a report a few years back, the Dutch government
admitted that 1,000 persons were killed without
giving consent.
It was supposed to be a "voluntary" program.
American Dr. Edmund Pellegrino says that any time we
deem any human life as of unacceptable quality -
the infant with cerebral damage, the retarded,
the chronically and terminally ill -
we make that life a target for "merciful destruction"
and accelerate the slide down the slippery slope
to involuntary euthanasia.
A particularly chilling example of such
"desensitivization" exhibited itself when Pellegrino
talked with a physician from the Netherlands.
"How does it feel to do euthanasia?" he asked the
doctor.
The doctor responded, "It's hard the first time."
#29293
IV. What the Bible says.
A. Preference is to choose life over death. Deuteronomy 30:19
1) Life has value because God gives it.
2) Some choose death in extreme circumstances - Saul's suicide.
3) Even in bad circumstances - sickness, widowhood, orphans,
slavery - life has worth and is to be cherished.
a) People are not less worthy because they have
limitations.
B. In the extremes of life, we can learn great lessons.
1) Job's depression is paralleled by many people. Job 3
a) It's a real "downer" of a passage, isn't it?
b) Should Job have been allowed to die?
c) What about his blessings at the end?
2) We cannot always anticipate our future feelings.
Stephen Ambrose is a famous historian, and in one of his
books he relates this account:
Sgt. Frank Smith, a medic in World War II, noticed
something that also struck other medics:
During training it was not uncommon to hear a soldier say,
'If I lose a leg (or arm or whatever) please shoot me.
I don't want to go home a cripple.'
But never, in combat, did I, or anyone I know, hear this,
no matter how bad the wound."
#4188
3) It is not just true in combat.
Working with the dying is a regular part of Edmund
Pellegrino's medical practice.
He has, at times, been asked to "assist" a patient in dying.
Pellegrino's response to one such request is typical:
After the patient expressed his wish, Ed sought to meet
the real needs behind the request.
First, he gave the patient control over their pain relief.
This patient was also feeling guilty, clinically depressed,
and concerned about being a burden to others.
Pellegrino treated the depression and brought in a pastoral
counselor to address the guilt.
He then gathered the patient's family to help them see how
their response to this man's illness was aggravating his
sense of unworthiness.
Once those needs were met, the patient thanked Pellegrino
for not responding to his earlier request to die.
"The most valuable days of my life have been the last days
I have spent," he said.
#29294
V. Christians accept the reality of death.
A. Are we favoring life only because we fear death?
1) True Christians can face death, with faith and not fear.
2) Christians do not have to needlessly prolong death.
a) Extraordinary medical efforts should only be used
when there is the reasonable possibility of recovery.
b) Compassion and love should never be limited.
B. Miracles are always possible but always rare.
1) Dilemma for Christians - there is always hope, so how
can we give up on someone? (miraculous cures happen)
2) God's miracles do not require respirators.
C. Be honest about your motives.
1) Are we more concerned about our loved one's life, or our
own?
2) What are the limits to our compassion?
VI. Choosing the best life.
A. Eternal life is better than earthly life.
1) Jesus said he came to earth that we might have life,
and life at its fullest. John 10:10
2) Apart from Jesus, you are not really alive.
B. Eternal life can never be taken from us.
1) The Apostle Paul longed to die, because he knew he would
see Jesus face-to-face. Phil 1:21-24
2) He choose to remain alive for the sake of his friends.
3) While we are alive, we live to serve the Lord.
C. Are you prepared for all contingencies?
1) Much attention being given to living wills.
a) It is a good idea to be prepared in advance.
b) Let your family know your own feelings. In writing!
2) Are you prepared to meet God?
a) Accept Jesus now.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 4188 "Medic!" Stephen E. Ambrose, American Heritage Magazine, November
1997, page 82.
#29292 "Why Fix The Heart Value?" Gary L. Thomas, Christianity Today
magazine, June 16, 1997, page 18.
#29293 "Euthanasia Is Hard - The First Time" Gary L. Thomas, Christianity
Today magazine, June 16, 1997, page 18.
#29294 "The Most Valuable Days of His Life" Gary L. Thomas, Christianity
Today magazine, June 16, 1997, page 17.
These and 25,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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Websites on the Christian perspective on euthanasia:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/012/27.62.html
http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/newsletter/2003/oct31.html
http://www.internationaltaskforce.org/
Advance Directives (Living Wills)
https://www.legaldocs.com/docs/living_will.d/nj-livw3.mv
