This was a thought-provoking article – “How Should We Then Die?”
It’s clear that as Christians, our lives are not our own, and we should not take matters into our hands to end life. This applies to suicide as well as to euthanasia.
However, lately what I’ve come across more, are instances of friends mentioning that their loved ones are on life support systems after a critical health episode.
Medical advancements have come so far that it is possible to keep people ‘alive’ such that unlike euthanasia, we seem to veer to the other extreme. People can ‘continue being alive’ via an “external heart system” that simulates the heart and pumps blood through the body, or lung support system, etc. Without a hospital equipped with these systems, these patients would have died. Which is the case in third world countries, or in remote areas when it takes too long to get a person to a hospital.
In many if not most of such cases, the person is also brain dead. It then becomes the decision of the family on whether they are “ready to let go”. This was conveyed to me by at least one friend, who said she was ready to let go after the first week, but her mum was not (her dad was on life support). Eventually, her mum felt ready, and they “pulled the plug”.
Another case was when the person had a brain aneurysm, and given the suddenness and her relatively young age, the family was not able to let go for more than a month even though she was declared brain dead from the day of admission.
So in such cases, to me, the person has already died because it is only advanced medical technology that is artificially keeping the person alive. Of course every life is precious, and if there is any hope of recovery (but to what quality of life? Is life as a paralysed person whose brain cannot function properly or remember anyone (i.e. for lack of a better term, in a vegetative state) still life worth restoring to?) we should not perform ‘mercy killing’ or not try our best to resucitate that person.
But doctors in High Dependency Wards will tell you that there are people who are kept alive by machines, at without ceasing the function of these machines, they could ‘exist’ for quite a while. Perhaps there is an ethical guide, to state when the decision to ‘pull the plug’ is not quite a decision to cease life, since life apart from these machines would have ended.
Is it then right, to put people on such machines in the first place? Many times, I feel that given the natural course of things, people would have died from heart attacks or strokes. But we
I suppose that is also why there is a “Do Not Resuscitate” clause in hospitals (I was asked once whether to invoke it), especially for elderly people. Many who have parents or grandparents who are in a vegetative state for many years residing at home or in nursing homes would state to doctors that should the patient (usually in their 80s or 90s) take a turn for the worse, to “let them go”.
Is that euthanasia? I suppose not, for constantly trying to invoke the full power of medical systems upon frail bodies, is also a way of ‘playing God’ and artificially keeping someone alive is also a form of ‘taking matters into one’s own hands’ in staving off natural death.
Ultimately, every case would be different and would have to be considered upon its own circumstances. What falls to us, is to make a considered decision according to what our Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, and the One who ordained every breath in our body, would have us do. Perhaps in cases where the person is already brain dead and any ‘recovery’ would leave the person in a vegetative condition, then those who are still alive should be the ones who should surrender to the sovereignty of God, and not rely on medical systems to artificially prolong a life that God has called home.
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