Reading: Life Support (The Video Slides)

Life Support
by David Feddes

Why go on living?

Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul, to those who long for death that does not come? (Job 3:20-21)

• This question is almost as old as the human race.

• Modern medicine makes the question even more pressing.

Complications of modern medicine

• Fewer die young, meaning that more will live to have cancer, stroke, or Alzheimer's.

• Feeding tubes, ventilators, dialysis, and other procedures save lives (blessing).

• Life support technology can also prolong death, where people linger in a hospital attached to equipment (curse).

• Life support technology forces us to deal with ethical puzzles that people without modern medicine didn't have to deal with.

Why go on living?

Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul, to those who long for death that does not come?(Job 3:20-21)

Hard decisions

• Earlier generations didn't have to decide about restoring heartbeat, ventilators, intravenous antibiotics, tracheotomy, feeding tubes, and other life support technology.

• Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide: not just withholding technology to delay death, but using technology to cause death.

• We will have to make decisions for family members and for ourselves. If we're pastors or counselors, we will be asked for advice.

Not my own

• For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.  If we live, we live to the Lord;  and if we die, we die to the Lord.  So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. (Romans 14:7-8).

• What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong--body and soul, in life and in death--to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. (Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 1)

Trust amid trouble

Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress...  My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning;  my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak...  I am forgotten as though I were dead... But I trust in you, O Lord;  I say, "You are my God.”  My times are in your hands. (Psalm 31)

You shall not murder:

human life is sacred

• Unborn babies, people with disabilities, cancer sufferers, Alzheimers patients--all bear God's image. God alone has authority to end their lives.

• There may be shades of grey in withholding or withdrawing life support.

• A doctor killing a patient, or a patient killing himself, is not an ethical shade of grey. It's as clear as black and white: it's murder.

Better off dead than disabled?

• We may ask: Is this treatment worth giving.

• We must not ask: Is this life worth living.

• Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Gal 6:2).

Support all human life

• Remove barriers for disabled people

• Help disabled people reach their potential

• Respect, love, and help aged and infirm (home care or frequent visits to facility)

• Provide care even when we can't cure (hospice, pain control, attention, love)

• Learn from the disabled and the dying

• Don't question if lives are worth living; instead, make lives worth living.

Easier to live vs.easier to die

“Instead of making it easier for people with disabilities to die, I would like our society to make it easier for them to live.” (Joni Eareckson Tada)

Purpose in suffering

• Euthanasia advocate: "I have found that there is no purpose in suffering.  People who suffer never become better people as a result of it...The sufferings of Christ were meaningless.”

• My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

• Deeper faith, warmer love, stronger testimony

• Ultimate focus is knowing God and eternity, not just minimizing pain in this life

Life support decisions

• God does not require us to use all life support technology just because it's there.

• We may refuse treatment that is likely only to prolong the dying process.

• Advocates of euthanasia tend to equate killing with refusing extreme measures. But there's a huge difference.

•It is helpful to spell out advance directives.

• It is wise to designate as a health care proxy someone you trust with your life.