Death With Dignity: How Physician-Assisted Suicide Distorts a Christian Ending to Our Lives
The practice of physician-assisted suicide is currently legal in 10 states, with at least 25 others considering legislation related to it.
The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America recently reaffirmed its position on the increase in legislation related to assisted suicide, pointing to a statement it made in 2022.
That year, the Assembly of Bishops’ statement titled “On the Sacredness of Human Life and its Untimely Termination” included the following:
In recent years, the possibilities for ill persons to choose to end their own lives have increased with access to medications that hasten death and legislation that allows for physicians to assist in the death of their patients. The Church grieves the pain and suffering many people experience in this life, but it cannot and does not condone any form of euthanasia. As with other forms of suicide, the Church, out of its compassion for both the dead and the bereaved, may, with prayerful discernment and at the case-by-case discretion of the bishop, offer funeral and burial services in certain of these situations. Most importantly, we advocate for compassionate palliative care and continue to pray for a 'good Christian ending to our lives' and a death that is 'peaceful, without shame or pain,' as we pray in our services.
Currently in the U.S.A., there are 10 states (and Washington, D.C.) which permit physician-assisted suicide. And in typical fashion, flowery terms are used to describe something that is anything but. Take proponents of legislation promoting it in various states referring to it as “medical aid in dying,” for instance.
Since 1994, the organization Death with Dignity “has advocated for the fundamental freedom of choice in end-of-life options for all,” according to its website. “We should all have the right to die with dignity” is displayed with big, bold letters across the top of its homepage.
In the case of physician-assisted suicide, we see a beautiful Christian concept being distorted by demonically influenced perpetrators.
The etymology of the word “euthanasia” comes from the Greek “eu,” meaning “good,” and “thanatos,” meaning death. So, when mashed together, euthanasia means “good death.”
While euthanasia is illegal in all 50 states here in America, the difference between that and physician-assisted suicide is just a matter of splitting hairs.
With the former, a doctor deliberately administers drugs and ends a patient’s life. With the latter, a doctor gives a lethal prescription to the patient who can then choose to take it when they please.
Tomato, to-mah-toe.
In American law, if a person contemplating suicide is given a firearm to kill themselves, the person giving the gun is charged with murder. Likewise, if one expresses a desire to take their own life, and someone encourages it, or gives them instructions on how to kill themselves, they are, at minimum, charged with voluntary manslaughter.
By the very principles established in American Common Law, then, a doctor who gives a lethal dose of a prescription medication (which the patient wouldn’t have access to otherwise) to a person admitting a desire to commit suicide, is guilty of murder.
But, as is typical in the West, anything goes as long as there is some semblance of choice. “Fundamental freedom of choice in end-of-life options” is hailed as an inalienable right, and our continually capitulating legal system gives in to yet another morally relative take on matters of life and death.
If someone is choosing to take the drugs and end their life, well, that’s their prerogative and it should be afforded to them. As long as someone decides how they go out, then we can all pat them on the back for choosing a dignified death.
Fr. Geoff Harvey, archpriest at Good Shepherd Orthodox Church in Australia, writes in a blog post from 2017 titled, “What the Orthodox Church teaches on Euthanasia,” that the only “good death” recognized by the Orthodox Church is that death in which the human person accepts the end of his or her life in the spirit of moral and spiritual purity, in hope and trust in God, and as a member of His kingdom.”
We know that the world is passing away, and the lust of it (1 John 2:17), but we also understand that the life we experience in this world is a gift that was given to us and is not of ourselves. To have hope and trust in God is to know that He has appointed the time of our falling asleep, and to understand that we have no authority to destroy this precious gift of life if we are to consider ourselves children of God.
We see then how the world inverts the truth of the Gospel, and does it in the name of an end that is “peaceful, without shame and suffering,” robbing Americans of their “good defense before the awesome Judgement Seat of Christ.”
Not only is physician-assisted suicide an inversion of Christian death, but it also inverts the principle of Christian freedom.
In a reflection titled “A Christian Understanding of Freedom,” His Eminence Archbishop Dmitri Royster of blessed memory (or St. Dmitri of Dallas, as I pray he will be canonized one day) writes:
Christ, in becoming incarnate, has permitted us, not to imitate, but to relive His life, to conform ourselves to His essence. In each Christian’s response to God, in saying, ‘let it be to me according to Thy will,’ he identifies himself with the God-Man Christ, and in this way, the Divine Will, freedom comes as an expression of one’s own will. The will of God, His work, His freedom have become one’s own. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, says St. Paul (Galatians 2:20).
When Our Lady the Theotokos said the beautiful words, “let it be to me according to Thy will,” at the Annunciation, it was not simply a submission to God’s will, Archbishop Dmitri writes, but rather that her very acceptance “expresses the ultimate freedom of her being.”
Man’s freedom is an icon – an image of the Divine Freedom itself. Man’s freedom is not found in the license to do whatever one pleases – it is found in what St. Paul describes in Romans 6:20-22.
“For when you were the slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”
Archbishop Dmitri exhorts us to understand that Christ has given us a freedom that cannot be taken away, no matter what the external circumstances of life may be. This understanding has “provided the strength, the dynamism, the very life of the Church in the different periods of Her bondage, Her restrictions.”
In Orthodox Christianity, we understand that we are called to engage in spiritual warfare every day, to take up our cross, and to discern which choices presented to us are illusory and demonic in nature and which choices keep us on the royal path.
For the Church, death with dignity is signified by the Forty Holy Martyrs of Sebaste, who, on top of their annual commemoration, are remembered during the Orthodox wedding service as exemplars of martyrdom.
The story of the Forty Holy Martyrs reveals to us what happens when we try to escape suffering and what happens when we embrace it.
From the Orthodox Church in America’s webpage for the martyrs, commemorated on March 9/March 22:
“It was winter, and there was a severe frost. They lined up the holy soldiers, threw them into a lake near the city, and set a guard to prevent them from coming out of the water. In order to break the will of the martyrs, a warm bathhouse was set up on the shore. During the first hour of the night, when the cold had become unbearable, one of the soldiers made a dash for the bathhouse, but no sooner had he stepped over the threshold, then he fell down dead.
“During the third hour of the night, the Lord sent consolation to the martyrs. Suddenly there was light, the ice melted away, and the water in the lake became warm. All the guards were asleep, except for Aglaius, who was keeping watch. Looking at the lake he saw that a radiant crown had appeared over the head of each martyr. Aglaius counted thirty-nine crowns and realized that the soldier who fled had lost his crown.
“Aglaius then woke up the other guards, took off his uniform and said to them, ‘I too am a Christian,’ and he joined the martyrs. Standing in the water he prayed, ‘Lord God, I believe in You, in Whom these soldiers believe. Add me to their number, and make me worthy to suffer with Your servants.’ Then a fortieth crown appeared over his head.
“In the morning, the torturers saw with surprise that the martyrs were still alive, and their guard Aglaius was glorifying Christ together with them. They led the soldiers out of the water and broke their legs. During this horrible execution the mother of the youngest of the soldiers, Meliton, pleaded with her son to persevere until death.”
The one who wished to escape suffering found death – real, spiritual death. The one who chose to join in suffering with the thirty-nine received a crown.
The employment of death to escape suffering is not what we find in the martyrs of the Church, as the acceptance of death or the willingness to die is not the same as the taking of one’s life. Rather, there is the virtue of perseverance, and the absolute conviction that the one who perseveres to the end will be saved (Matthew 24:13).
And “the end” is for God to decide, not us.
Because of this, the Church guards us and aims to prevent us from making such rash decisions. While the statement from the Assembly of Bishops notes that, on a case-by-case basis and with prayerful discernment, certain individuals may receive funeral and burial services, it is also important that we keep this harsh reminder in mind:
In the matter of suicides, if a person is considered in his or her right mind and commits suicide, the only interpretation that the Church can give is that such a person rejects the life given to them by the Holy Spirit. The result is that the Church does not offer a funeral service to that person. The reason for this is that the funeral service is reserved only for those who believe in the resurrection of the dead and eternal life after the resurrection.
– Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver, “Regarding Suicides and Cremation,” 2016
The Church also remains nuanced in Her approach to end-of-life circumstances, rejecting the practice of assisted suicide but permitting the faithful to decide not to use extraordinary means to prolong one’s life in instances where one is seriously ill.
In these instances, space is left for miraculous healing from God Himself while encouraging the ill person to faithfully prepare for death.
The recently reposed Orthodox theologian Fr. Stanley Harakas writes in his 1993 book titled “Living the Faith: The Praxis of Eastern Orthodox Ethics,” published by Light and Life Publishing Co.:
Orthodox Christian ethics rejects euthanasia; it considers it a special case of murder if done without the knowledge and consent of the patient, and suicide if it is requested by the patient.
Now, judgment belongs to God alone – the Church does not condemn those who commit suicide.
If you are struggling to find Christ in your suffering or contemplating an extreme course of action like physician-assisted suicide, run to the Church – the hospital for our souls.
Let us all, sincerely and with pain of heart, pray for those who fall victim to the plague of moral relativism and allow despair to tempt them into a rejection of God and His love.
When your faith in the Lord, either during your life and prosperity, or in the time of sickness and at the moment of quitting this life, grows weak, grows dim from worldly vanity or through illness, and from the terrors and darkness of death, then look with the mental eyes of your heart upon the companies of our forefathers, the patriarchs, prophets, and righteous ones:
St. Simeon, who took the Lord up in his arms, Job, Anna the Prophetess, and others; the Apostles, prelates, venerable Fathers, martyrs, the disinterested, the righteous, and all the saints.
See how, both during their earthly life and at the time of their departure from this life, they unceasingly looked to God and died in the hope of the Resurrection and of the life eternal, and strive to imitate them.
These living examples, which are so numerous, are capable to strengthen the wavering faith of every Christian in the Lord and in the future life.
– St. John of Kronstadt, “My Life in Christ”
Pious warrior martyrs of Sebaste, intercede with Christ God for us that we may enter into the same divine refreshment.
