No one wants to suffer.  Older people are particularly aware of this as we face end of life issues.    Not a happy thought for the New Year.  Sorry, but this is an issue that we all face sooner or later. 

As I write this, a famous football star is in recovery from heart issues that suddenly appeared when he was tackled on the playing field. As of this writing, he seems to be on the mend but just suppose he was not to continue in recovery and was placed on life support.  What would you do? 

I am not suggesting that we keep people alive by supplying their body with fluids or machines that will help them continue in this life. That is a personal decision that one must make.  People of faith view all life as sacred.  Although in times past, death was the only option. 

 However, we have come to a point in society that has shifted away from protecting innocent human life to eliminating all suffering.   Let’s start with the transgender moral panic.  In the name of eliminating suffering in children with gender dysphoria, many physicians insist that they will eliminate suffering in children by surgically and medically changing the sex of children.  Only later, these same young adults are now in anguish over their new sex roles and blaming their parents for not protecting them while they were younger.

This isn’t new but the idea of “eliminating suffering” by euthanasia is creeping into the mainstream of American life.  It started years ago by a man called, “Dr Death.”  Look him up.

Now it appears that Canada is ahead of us in promoting assisted suicide or euthanasia, but we aren’t far behind.  Currently, 10 states allow physician assisted suicide.  In my old state of New Mexico, where I went to school, the “End of Life Options Act” goes well beyond legalizing physician assisted suicide.  It also mandates that a doctor take crucial steps to help the patient commit suicide, including referring physicians and providing information about it.

Under this New Mexico law, if medical professionals don’t participate in the assisted suicide process, they could be subjected to civil or criminal penalties and even lose their licenses.  Instead of this, would it not have been more worthy to focus on treatments to help patients by developing  new drugs to ease pain and suffering?  We trust doctors to heal, not harm.  We trust doctors to provide compassionate care and comfort when healing is no longer possible. 

In a nation founded upon the self-evident truth ‘that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” it should follow that life itself is sacred. Ending life by abortion or suicide takes away the sanctity of life and the role of our Creator in making life possible.

A culture that views life as circumstantially disposable instead of as a gift of God has suffered a self-inflicted wound that could prove fatal if not treated.  Ending the practice of both abortions and assisted suicide would be a noble first step towards making a culture which once again promotes a faith based and morally upright society!