Primum non nocere (“First, do no harm”)
—Hippocratic Oath

Not only is the practice of assisted suicide morally abhorrent and a denial of God’s plan for life and death, but it opens a new door for abuse of the sick, elderly, and disabled. Death draws near when a culture rejects the value of human life created in the immortal image of God, creatio imagio dei. Reject that bedrock principle, which helps to undergird a successful civilization, and tragic, practical consequences eventually follow. Today, it takes no great mental vision to see on the horizon that the vulnerable have a looming threat to their very lives.

Look to the north: In Canada, what is “probably the biggest existential threat to disabled people since the Nazis’ program in Germany in the 1930s”? It comes under the guise of nice-sounding, marketing words of ostensible compassion – “assisted suicide” and “death with dignity.” Accepted years ago in Canada, assisted suicide is now the fifth leading cause of death with some 15,300 people being killed in 2023 alone.

America may not be far behind as states continue to legalize so-called “Death With Dignity Acts.”

Many years ago the Governor of Colorado told old, ill people: “You’ve got a duty to die and get out of the way.” Ideas that cheapen human life have consequences, and today, assisted suicide is legal in 10 states plus Washington, D.C. The states of Oregon and Vermont allow residents and non-residents to undergo assisted suicide, which has led to a “sort of euthanasia tourism” and “essentially grown into a whole marketplace for non-residents coming in to kill themselves,” West Virginia Delegate Patrick McGeehan (R) explains.

Washington State

Sadly, Washington voters passed such a “Death with Dignity” amendment in 2008, and each year assisted-suicide deaths reach new highs in our state – partly because in 2020 Washington legislators passed another measure to make death by euthanasia even more easily attainable. In 2022, 446 people were killed. The growing trend from 2008 is clear as this report from the Washington State Department of Health’s “Death with Dignity Data” illustrates:

The Grim Reality

The Left doesn’t want you to know the horrifying reality of medically assisted suicide.

It is not a “good death,” as they advertise. McGeehan shared the following details in a report from Washington Watch. While conservative states such as West Virginia shore up protections against assisted suicide by way of a constitutional amendment, other states look to decrease regulation. Some states have gone as far as to offer lodging such as hotels and Airbnb rentals for people coming into the area to die.

As McGeehan put it, “Really, they’re death hotels [and] death Airbnbs.” The euthanasia process has become so streamlined, he added, that it’s “just like [receiving] any other medication.” He explained, “They give you a cocktail of poisons,” and then “you go back by yourself into one of these hotels [and] swallow the cocktail poison, it destroys your organs,” and then “social workers actually come by the next day [to] collect all the bodies in these hotels and burn them.” McGeehan shook his head. “We’ve got to push back against this. This is just part of a broader trend of nihilism that’s sweeping our country with the progressive liberal order. And I’m sick of it.”

In Hawaii, one euthanasia death is being investigated as a homicide. In Canada, sick patients who want to live are being encouraged and sometimes coerced to choose assisted suicide by the government and medical practitioners. The state of assisted suicide in Canada is so dire that Tim Stainton, the director of the Canadian Institute for Inclusion and Citizenship at the University of British Columbia, noted that the law is “probably the biggest existential threat to disabled people since the Nazis’ program in Germany in the 1930s.”

Six Moral Principles Against a Culture of Death

Against assisted suicide, let’s be clear on six moral principles, with insights from Christian philosopher Peter J. Kreeft:

• “My life is God’s gift.” Our lives are His, not ours.

• We are to love our neighbor as ourselves. “Killing one’s self is murder just as killing another person is.” Suicide is a sin.

• “A good motive (mercy) does not justify an intrinsically evil act (killing).” Doctors, following the Hippocratic Oath, should abide by this – “Do no harm.”

• A person’s worth is determined by who they are – i.e., a person’s essence as a human being, imagio dei – and not by what they can do. Worth is not determined by a person’s level of disability, intelligence, wantedness, or anything else. We reject “the bully philosophy” of those who think they can draw a man-made, artificial line, and thus determine who should live and who should die simply because they have more power over others.

• “’Letting die’” is not the same as killing. It can be morally right under some circumstances: if there is no reasonable hope of cure.”

• Finally, “in nearly all cases, dying today can be free from intolerable pain, though most doctors are not adequately trained in this palliative care. However, there are excellent care organizations like Hospice that are.”

Brakes on the Slippery Slope

The threat against the old and disabled is real. As we know from Canada, legalizing “Medical Assistance in Dying” (MAID) programs is just one step on a very slippery slope. In 2016, they began the push for assisted suicide by legalizing euthanasia for those with “a serious and incurable illness, disease or disability.” By 2027, the country plans to allow those with mental illness to pursue assisted suicide as well. The solution to treating depression, anxiety, or other resolvable mental health struggles is not death. Assisted suicide is needless, and tragic, and should never be endorsed by the government or society.

We’re thankful that some states are pushing back against the assisted suicide movement, and we must act to turn the cultural tides in Washington and beyond. The state of Washington may not be ready to correct this evil, but, our representatives in the federal government may be more willing to enact a nationwide prohibition against this dangerous practice. As Job 12:10 notes, “In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.” God alone is the author of life, and our policies should reflect that.

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