It sounds obvious, but it needs to be said.  Before I inveigh the proposal of doctor assisted suicide that has some how made it on this years ballot in Colorado (prop 106).  Let me tell you why I am qualified to speak to this issue.  Of course, prop 106 is a specific kind of suicide designed to help those who might be suffering perhaps even terminal.  I am not going to address the specifics of the bill because they don't really matter.  Others have done that.  I have had the privilege (I do mean privilege) of doing many funerals, especially in recent years.  In fact, I will be sitting with a woman who lost her mom and a man who lost his wife tomorrow to plan the funeral.  She had cancer and would have been a prime candidate for the use of prop 106.  I have sat at the side of someone who desperately wanted death to come, I listened as he cried out loudly for death to come because he was suffering and he wanted to see Jesus.  His daughter (his primary care taker) listened to his cries daily.  I later did his funeral.  There are many more whom I have visited in the hospital as they hung on to life, but sought death.  I have friends who consistently feel the pain of watching loved ones lose their health and their minds as life very slowly slips away.  A few years ago my grandma was facing death.  Knowing she was going to pass away I flew to Florida so I could spend one last Thanksgiving with her.  I spent a few days with her and some other family.  The picture that accompanies this post is the last time I saw her.  I was flying out the next day so I hugged her and prayed for her before I left.  Later I would speak at her funeral.  I have been there as suffering gave way to death.  I have spent time with people within hours of taking their last breath and I have seen them in the midst of pain and suffering longing for death to arrive.  So, how could I say that doctor assisted suicide is not compassionate?  

I will admit, that there have been times where the emotional turmoil seems to be too much.  There have been times where I wanted nothing more than for God to have compassion and take a suffering person home to be with Him.  My tears flowed and the doubter in me wondered why God wouldn't act.  At times I would even become angry with God for allowing such suffering, but then I would remember, He is God, not me, and His ways are greater than mine!!  Yeah, it sounds like another Christian platitude that isn't very helpful, but it contains important truth.  It is a summary of good Christian doctrine.  I must also admit that in a godless world, assisted suicide might very well be the most compassionate act that could be taken.  In that world it wouldn't be any different than putting your pet down to end their suffering, but that isn't the world we live in.  

If God does exist, specifically the God of the Christian Scriptures, then the compassionate thing to do is not to allow someone to take their life because they are suffering.  Remember Job?  Job learned some important things about God as he went through a great deal of suffering.  Perhaps the most important lesson Job learned is that God's power, insight, wisdom, and experience surpassed his by an infinite amount.  God questioned Job (Job 38-9) and Job's response was to shut his mouth.  There is only one God of life and it isn't you, me, or a bunch of politicians; It isn't the doctor and it isn't the person suffering.  I am sure that sounds cold, but it isn't.  My life is not my own.  One of the great lies of Western society is that my life is mine to do with whatever I want, unless I am in the womb, I guess.   Job's life was not his own, it belonged to God, not because he followed God, not because of his religious beliefs, but because God is the one who created life and He is sovereign over it.  Job recognized this, "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised (1:21)."  No person has unmitigated rights to their own life or any life.  If this were the case, why should we bother to put conditions on suicide at all?  Why wouldn't every person have the right to end their life at any time for any reason?  Why should a person's mental health be a consideration, that is just a different kind suffering isn't it?  Life, even our own life, is the domain of God.  

God's ownership of life is not the only reason doctor assisted suicide is unacceptable.  When I was younger and I would scrape my knuckles while working on the car or I would have some other obstacle I needed to face my dad would often say, "it builds character."  Frankly, it was annoying, I didn't want any more character at that point, I just wanted relief.  Comparing the minor suffering I experienced when I was younger with a terminal cancer patient might seem weak, but the principal applies.  Just as my dad forced me to navigate whatever issues I was facing when I was younger so that I would grow in character, God who is sovereign cares infinitely more about a person's character and growth.  Who knew my dad was being Biblical (Rom. 5:4-5; James 1:2-4).  God cares about our character even in the waining months, weeks, days, and moments of our life.  We ought not shortcut the work God is doing by playing God ourselves.  It isn't only the character of the person who may be facing death or suffering that is important, but the character, growth, maturity, and work being done in those that surround the suffering person; it might be a family member, friend, nurse, or even a stranger that God is working on.  Our most insightful ideas and our greatest wisdom is child's play to an infinite God (Is. 55:8-9).  

A couple of weeks ago when I sat with a woman who was facing death because of the cancer that was ravaging her body she asked me about my daughter who is now a senior in high school.  She proceeded to tell me how she had been praying for my daughter for some time.  As I shared how she could continue to pray for my daughter she was writing it all down in her prayer book.  A week later she breathed her last.  Even in her last days she had not given up interceding in prayer for others.  She had a ministry of prayer to her very last moments.  I cherish those prayers.  This will certainly be part of my message when I do her memorial service in a couple weeks.  

Whenever doctor assisted suicide comes up it should be wholly rejected.  It is not compassionate, the compassionate thing to do, and frankly the more difficult thing, is to walk with someone through the suffering, to help them face the hardship so they might finish well.

It doesn't matter.  Abortion has been legal since Roe v. Wade in 1973; that's 43 years.  The law has been on the books too long to change at this point, it is ingrained into our culture.  It certainly doesn't matter in regards to presidential politics.  There are other more relevant and pressing issues we need to deal with as a country.  At least that is how the argument goes.  Is it true?  Is that how we should be thinking about it?

This was the argument presented to me yesterday on Facebook.  I will admit, the abortion issue has been around my entire life.  There have been marches, web sites, political debates, campaigns, rallies, and much more.  It has been the rallying cry of the "Moral Majority" which has come and gone.  Still today there are t-shirts, bumper stickers, memes, #hashtags, and much more.  It feels like an old issue that has been settled and if you are pro-life it didn't go your way, so get over it.  

I want to agree and just get over it, but I can't.  It isn't just because I'm emotionally invested or I'm caught up in a bygone political era, it is because it would be as much an error as the original ruling on the issue in 1973.  Here is why:

1. It's a life issue.  In other words it isn't about "abortion" it is about how we as a culture view and understand life.  This has far reaching affects beyond whether or not a woman can abort a baby.  In fact, this November Colorado will have assisted suicide on its ballet.  There will be a vote on whether physicians can help people commit suicide.  Colorado already has one of the highest suicide rates in the country, but instead of fighting for life, we are considering legalizing it.  No, this isn't abortion, but they are both life issues and they are deeply connected.  A candidates view on abortion is likely based on the same principals that inform their view on assisted suicide.  
2. It isn't really settled law.  It is true that the supreme court has not budged, but the supreme court is not the only law one should consider.  Planned Parenthood has made the news a lot in recent years because they have been selling aborted baby body parts.  Yes, it sounds disgusting, but that is an accurate way of describing their practice.  They have not been convicted of any wrong doing, but the debate in congress, which is the law making body in our country, about government financial support has been lively to say the least.  This is not only true at the federal level, but 10 states have defunded Planned Parenthood specifically because of their abortion practices.  
3. The science is now settled, abortion kills a human being.  Early on in the debate, there was some question regarding when life began.  Still today I frequently hear people bring up the question of when life begins, but they are uninformed on the issue.  Those who are informed talk about other things like viability because they know that science has conclusively proven that as early as the first 48 hours the zygote is a living human being with its own human DNA that is unique.  It is not the DNA of the mother or the father, so it is not just a glob of cells, it is a human interacting with its environment, taking in nutrition, converting that nutrition to energy, and growing.  The science is settled.  As a result those who are pro-choice have done everything they can to redefine and and change the focus of the discussion.  Unfortunately they have been pretty successful.  
4. It's the greatest injustice of our time.  Many are upset about the number of black people killed by police every year.  In 2015 there were 258 black people killed by police in the United States and in 2016 there have been 175 black people killed by police at the time of this writing.  This has been seen by many as a great injustice.  It has caused protests of all kinds, some have been violent and destructive.  Every day there are approximately 870 black babies aborted.  If you do the math that is more than 316,000 black babies killed every year.  If you add in all ethnicities it adds up to over 700,000 innocent lives extinguished every year.  There are certainly other injustices in the world that deserve our attention, but the greatest injustice in the United States right now is abortion, and there is definitely a racial aspect to this injustice.
5. Slavery was legal for millennia.   For thousands of years people engages in slavery.  It was not only settled law, it was common practice.  In many cases slavery was viewed as charitable because of the false perception that black people were intellectually inferior and they wouldn't know what to do with their freedom.  Even writing such a thing makes me sick, but the same argument is often used for abortion.  People will often say, "it is better to abort a baby than bring it into poverty (or a corrupt world, or whatever)."  Those babies wouldn't be able to experience the goodness in life, so we should show compassion and kill them early.  Of course that sounds ridiculous, but that is the argument.  Just like slavery had been common practice and settled law and still hailed as the greatest injustice of its time, so to, abortion is the greatest injustice, the greatest civil rights issue of our time.  Yet, we somehow find the wherewithal to ignore it.  

I will admit it, the abortion issue trumps all other issues for me.  That doesn't mean I don't consider other issues, but it does mean I cannot and will not vote for a pro-choice candidate.  I will not ignore the greatest civil rights issue of our time because its old news.