I hope this can be used, in time, to raise a number of issues for further discussion and debate and allow fellow Christians to consider together how God's Word speaks into topical issues.
It must be noted that the views held in these columns are personal and may not necessarily reflect the Salvation Army's official stance on certain issues.
What are your views? Email them to me using this link: Graeme Parkhill
During the past number of months there has been much debate in the press regarding the issue of assisted suicide. A number of high profile deaths have been reported in the press. These, alongside a particular legal challenge, have culminated in the Director of Public Prosecutions in England and Wales issuing new guidance clarifying the law on assisted suicide.
I have given this subject some thought over the past while, particularly to the call by some for assisted suicide and euthanasia to be legalised in the UK.
I want to say, at the outset, that I am of the view that assisted suicide is wrong, immoral and against God's law as recorded in the sixth commandment, "Do not murder." (Exodus 20:13)
I can find no support for it in the Scriptures and could never get to a place where I could advise any Christian that it was permissible by the law of God.
Where I do see an issue for further discussion is in the attempts of the medical profession to keep patients alive indefinitely. I recognise the sensitivities involved and the difficult decisions that medical professionals will often have to take, but I often wonder whether it is possible that medical science has advanced in certain respects to a point where life is being prolonged beyond its natural end. Is it possible to hold this view, yet still recognise an Almighty God who is in control of our days and times?
This stage of life is, however, then used by many as an argument to support assisted suicide. Other arguments involve discussion over quality of life and 'burden' on families, along with a desire to choose the time and circumstances surrounding death.
Perhaps we are simply never meant to understand why some are taken and others survive.
I am not sure what the solution is to this matter, whether peoples' lives are prolonged beyond a natural end, but I am convinced that it is not assisted suicide.
The Salvation Army's positional statement on euthanasia can be accessed by using the following link: Positional Statement
Readers may also be interested in the following article, published in the Telegraph newspaper on Tuesday 6 October 2009.
"Woman sent home to die is recovering
A woman who was sent home to die with five brain tumours has amazed doctors by making a recovery, one year later. Carole Budding, 47, was told there was no further treatment doctors could give her for the cancers, and she even began to plan her own funeral.
But her most recent scan revealed four of the growths had gone and the final one had shrunk to the size of a pinhead. Mrs Budding, from Bristol, said, "I was thinking I was going to die in a few weeks, then suddenly I wasn't. After a year of facing death, I still have my shutters down. I'm scared to celebrate in case it comes back."
Doctors said radiotherapy given in January was likely to have shrunk the tumours."
What are your views? Email them to me using this link: Graeme Parkhill