| (Copyright 12-11-2024) by Richard T. Ritenbaugh (Charlotte, North Carolina) |
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 The phrase “culture of death” entered mainstream discourse in 1995 after the publication of Pope John Paul II’s encyclical, Evangelium Vitae (“The Gospel of Life”). In it, he wrote about issues like abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide and the moral implications of such practices on society. He argued that they undermine the worth and dignity of human beings. Since then, discussions and debates on bioethics, healthcare policies, and “reproductive rights” often employ the term. Because of its association with John Paul II, the most frequent critics of the culture of death are Catholic publications such as the National Catholic Register and Church Life Journal, and Catholic organizations like the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic League. The flipside, of course, is the “culture of life,” which promotes protecting and respecting all human life from conception to natural death. Its foundation, certainly from a religious perspective, is God’s providence of life to humanity and its sanctification in His fundamental law, the Ten Commandments. In this way, promoting life becomes a bedrock principle for believers and a sacred task to many. Increasing numbers of nations are allowing assisted suicide, including America’s northern neighbor, Canada. Its “assisted dying” law, called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), became legal in June 2016 for individuals with grievous and incurable medical conditions. Since then, the law has been amended, including expanded eligibility criteria, but it currently excludes, until March 2027, those whose only condition is a mental illness. One loosening of criteria occurred in March 2021, which advocates claim was “driven by compassion, an end to suffering and discrimination, and a desire for personal autonomy.” In it, Canadian lawmakers repealed the earlier provision that required the patient’s natural death to be reasonably foreseeable to be eligible for MAID. Currently, the law also permits physician-administered MAID to those who have lost the capacity to consent to it if the initial, self-administered application of a lethal substance fails to kill them but instead renders them unable to communicate their willingness for a second dose. Essentially, it is the culture of death’s version of “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Now, Britain and Wales are on the cusp of passing their own pro-euthanasia law. Near the end of November 2024, by a vote of 330 to 275, the British Parliament—including two former conservative party prime ministers—voted to forward a bill to legalize “assisted death.” This recent push for assisted death, already sinister, has an even darker underbelly. It slyly encourages the incurably ill and severely disabled to take this route as a patriotic duty, as the kingdom’s flailing National Health Service wallows under substantial cost increases and administrative arthritis. In other words, the law attempts to save the government money. The bill’s advocates promise safeguards will be enshrined in the law so that only mature, terminally-ill adults can access it. However, a few decades of experience with other nations who have passed similar laws exposes the insincerity of this promise. For instance, The Netherlands, the first nation to legalize euthanasia, passed its law in April 2002. Since then, the Dutch have expanded the law’s eligibility requirements. First, in 2014, it allowed children aged 12-16 to undergo medically assisted death with parental consent. Then, in 2020, the nation expanded the “right” to children aged 1-12 under specified conditions. From 1,800 cases of euthanasia in 2002, assisted-death cases have risen to nearly 9,000 annually—about 5% (one of every twenty) of all deaths in The Netherlands. In Canada, assisted death similarly ranks in the top five causes of death. With its law, Britain aims to join The Netherlands (2002), Belgium (2002), Luxembourg (2009), Canada (2016), Colombia (2015), Spain (2021), New Zealand (2021), several Australian states (2017-2021), and Switzerland (permitted since the early twentieth century under certain conditions based on interpretations of existing penal laws). Physician-assisted suicide is permissible in nine U.S. states (in order of its law’s enactment: Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Jersey, Maine, and New Mexico) and the District of Columbia. While there have been a couple of instances of nations or states temporarily repealing euthanasia laws, the overall trend has been toward legalization or expansion of euthanasia and assisted suicide rather than repeal. With nations becoming progressively post-Christian, instances of assisted-death legislation will likely spread to other countries. As biblical Christianity, with its unyielding stance for life, cedes its authority to secular humanism, lawmakers will find euthanasia an attractive measure to eradicate expensive, government-funded palliative care for the terminally ill, calling it (as they already do) a “human right,” “compassionate,” and “necessary” for a well-ordered, fiscally sound society. When a nation forsakes moral truths like those found in Scripture, rationalization of evil is the eventual result. David prophesied of this wicked process in Psalm 9:15-17: The nations have sunk down in the pit which they made; In the net which they hid, their own foot is caught. The LORD is known by the judgment He executes; The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Meditation. Selah The wicked shall be turned into hell [Sheol, “the grave,” “death”], And all the nations that forget God. Without God’s instruction, a society soon becomes a culture of death. Because it cares little for the lives of its people, it will see death as a viable solution to its problems. Thus, in our nations, we observe abortion, infanticide, homosexuality, genetic engineering, human modification, limiting end-of-life care, and euthanasia/assisted suicide as heavily championed progressive (read: anti-God) issues. Each of these removes God and moral absolutes from the equation, giving the power of life and death to short-sighted, profane humans. Sadly, there is little chance this trend changes for the better until the return of the Savior, Jesus Christ. ——————————————————————————————————————- See Richard T. Ritenbaugh’s other articles at: Ritenbaugh, Richard T. – Church of God, Bismarck (church-of-god-bismarck.org) Reprinted with permission from: Church of the Great God https://www.cgg.org/ ——————————————————————————————————————– |
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