Choose Life!

In our recent financial struggles as a nation, it is often easy to forget that there are other battles being fought, even more important than the financial issues that we face. One of these is the dignity of life and that each life is valuable because he or she was created in the image of God and only God has the prerogative to determine life's extent. This is another issue that needs to be discussed in the home to understand the Biblical perspective on life. The illustration below comes from a Christian Doctor and what he experienced recently in his work.

Exhibit 2: It is late, nearly 9 P.M., seeing a final consult at the end of a punishing call day, in the ICU. The patient, chronologically young yet physiologically Methuselan, lies in his bed, oxygen mask affixed to his face by heavy straps, bleeding, as he has for months, from a tumor in his kidney. He would not survive surgery, nor even radiological intervention to stem the hemorrhage by strangling its arterial lifeline. He is, furthermore, in the parlance of modern medicine, “non-compliant”: refusing treatments and diagnostic studies; rude and abusive to nurses and physicians alike; demanding to go home though unlikely to survive there for any significant length of time.

The nurse — young, competent, smart, hard-working, the very best of the modern nursing profession — apprises me of his situation, closing with this knockout punch: “You know, we just passed that initiative — you know, the suicide one. He’d be an excellent candidate.”

She wasn’t joking.

Taken a bit off guard, I responded that it is most unwise to give physicians the power to kill you, for we will become very good at it, and impossible to stop once we are.

You can read the rest of the article by going here and moving down to "Exhibit 2".

PS - here is an interesting read referred to by the doctor mentioned above, and in great contrast, thanks for the nurses here at Valley Grace who seek to make a difference in patient's lives. This is also a reminder that all of us are "casting a shadow" (I think that might preach!) on people with whom we come into contact each day. Thanks for being the shadow of Christ!