Physician-Assisted Suicide

Earlier this year the annual representative meeting of the British Medical Association decided to drop its opposition to the legalisation of what has become known as physician-assisted suicide - where a doctor prescribes drugs for a patient to use to put an end to his life, but takes no part in administering them. The

There is indeed a lighthouse, and it was good to see an Aberdeen surgeon draw attention to it. He pointed out that the heart of the debate on euthanasia revolves around our concept of who man is. Accordingly he drew attention to the teaching of the Bible that man was made in the image of God "and that his purpose is to govern the earth, to populate the earth and to enjoy God's presence (see Genesis 1-3). Furthermore, the deliberate taking of human life is forbidden (see Exodus 20). Whilst I regularly am in the situation of withdrawing or withholding futile treatment from moribund patients, and see this as a compassionate act, it is quite a different matter to become involved in the deliberate ending of a patient's life, as in Dutch-style euthanasia. It seems to me that such acts represent a failure of compassion on the part of the doctor rather than the opposite. As doctors, it is ours to heal sometimes, improve things often, but to encourage our patients always. Our patients quite often are discouraged, or even despairing, of their situations. What a tragedy it would be if all the doctor had to add in such a situation is that he agrees with their outlook and recommends ending it all. We need to remember that God is the one who appoints the time for each person's death (see Hebrews 9:27)."

In a debate on the subject in the House of Lords, Lord Joffe indicated that he expected to bring in a bill permitting physician-assisted suicide (his previous bill ran out of time in the last session of parliament). Even if, sadly, he is determined to close his eyes to the light the Bible sheds on the matter, he surely ought to listen to the weight of arguments from doctors concerned that, as one family doctor put it, "it will require a paradigm shift in the role of the GP as carer and healer to that of killer". As in other moral issues where the law has been changed over the last 40 or more years, there seems to be a small, assertive and highly-articulate group of people determined to force their views on the nation in the face of much public opinion and, altogether more significantly, the law of God.