How Valuable Is Human Life?

Do you trust your doctor to do what is in your best interest? If you have had a family physician for many years who has gone with you through the ups and downs of life, knows your spouse and knows your family, then the answer to that question is an unequivocal Yes.
But medicine has changed, and many of us no longer have that relationship with our healthcare provider. Let’s say you are getting up in years, and you find yourself in a medical emergency, lying at the point of death on a hospital bed. A team of doctors has gathered around you, doing everything they know to revive you, but you aren’t responding.
At this point, one of them turns to your wife and says, “He’s gone; there is nothing more we can do.” To this your wife responds, “He is tough; don’t stop trying.” Sure enough, shortly thereafter, you revive.
This is not a made-up story; it was told to me by a friend last week. He was the one on the hospital bed. Now, maybe those doctors were the most compassionate people in the world, but if you are the one on the bed, you want to know for certain that you are in caring hands.
If the story above concerns you, consider where we are headed. This is, unfortunately, becoming a topic, since the world started running down the slippery slope of legalizing assisted suicide. The practice started out to “assist” those who were in enormous pain and near the point of death. In the countries where it is legal, those strictures have, in large measure, been thrown off. Dr. Albert Mohler (The Briefing, albertmohler.com) refers to this as the “moral drift,” and it is well documented in nations that have offered assisted suicide to adults in terminal situations, but now is being extended to adolescents and children.
In the civilized world, human life is considered sacred – at least it always used to be. It was understood that we are made by God, and He determines when we are born, and when we die. To interfere in extreme ways in that process is to play God. Once we determine to step into His realm, all bets are off.
In an absolutely shocking article by Steve Doughty, the social affairs correspondent for Britain’s Daily Mail,  we learn that, in Belgium, which has had legalized assisted suicide for 13 years, thousands of people are killed by their doctors, despite not having asked to die, and  two-thirds of them were not suffering a terminal disease. Very often doctors would not inform families of plans to lethally inject a relative because they considered it a medical decision to be made by them alone, as reported by the Journal of Medical Ethics. 
New Jersey now has a bill before the Legislature to legalize assisted suicide (Gov. Christie says that he’ll veto it). The adverse issues associated with this legislation are more and more coming to light, including the value medical professionals place on human life.
Our state shouldn’t go down this road.  When we, like my friend, are on that bed, trusting our life to others, we would like to think it has value to them, and that they will be doing their uttermost for us.
Art Hall
From the Bible, God created man in his own image.  Genesis 1:27