Yesterday, in a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court struck down the right of the federal government to prohibit doctors from prescribing lethal doses of medications to terminally ill patients. Not only does the Oregon law in dispute tempt doctors to violate their Hippocratic Oath to “do no harm,” it subtly pressures the sick to seek their own deaths. Expect more states to enact such legislation now that the high court has given them the green light.
We have forgotten that suffering is a necessary part of life in this fallen world. We have also forgotten that life, in all its beauty and complexity, is a gift from God. It does not stop being a gift even when its pleasures are removed. Life is about more than simply minimizing pain and maximizing pleasure. But we are so secular in outlook we can no longer see this.
We are not our own. The ultimate evil in life is not suffering. It is failing to live for God, the source of life. No wonder so many people prefer death to life.
About Stan Guthrie
Stan Guthrie is an editor at large for Christianity Today magazine and for the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. His latest book is God's Story in 66 Verses. He also is author of All that Jesus Asks: How His Questions Can Teach and Transform Us, Missions in the Third Millennium: 21 Key Trends for the 21st Century, and A Concise Guide to Bible Prophecy. He is co-author of The Sacrament of Evangelism. Besides authoring, writing, and editing books, Stan is a literary agent, bringing together good authors, good books, and good publishers.
Stan writes the monthly Priorities colum for BreakPoint.org. He has appeared on National Public Radio's Tell Me More, WGN's Milt Rosenberg program, and many Christian shows, including The Eric Metaxas Show and Moody Radio's New Day Florida. A licensed minister and an inspirational speaker, he served as moderator for the Christian Book Expo panel discussion, Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?
