1. WELCOME!
Parkside Bible Fellowship
Adult Summer Sunday School
August 9, 2009
9th Session

3. We Are the Salt and the
Light In A Dying World
As Christians, we must be ready to
e
set the record stra
straight every time
the media portrays Physician
Assisted Suicide as an act of
“COMPASSION if not, it could
COMPASSION,”
become a slippery slope.

4. God’s Word forbids murder.
• Abortion All fall into
• Euthanasia the category
of murder!
• Suicide
However, Capital Punishment
(Death Penalty) does not.

5. Euthanasia
1. From the dictionary
• A good death or dying well
• A peaceful and painless death to
end a painful an incurable disease.
and
2. Society
• Physician Assisted Suicide
• Mercy Killing
• Death With Dignity
• Quality of life vs. Sanctity of Life

6. 3. Medical World
• Active euthanasia occurs in those
instances in which so
someone takes active
means, such as a leth injection, to bring
ethal
about someone’s death. “ “PHYSICIAN
ASSISTED SUICIDE
SUICIDE”
• Passive euthanasia occurs in those
instances in which someone simply
refuses to intervene in order to prevent
someone’s death. Natural death is not
imminent.

7. 3. Medical World
• Letting die involves the withholding or
withdrawing life-prolonging and life
prolonging life-
sustaining medicatio and technologies
tions
from an irreversibly ill patient with
whom death is imminent even with
treatment.

8. Capital Punishment and Christianity
Divided in the Christian World
Against For
1. Sanctity of life 1. Death penalty is
2. Thou Shall Not Kill retribution for shedding
3. He who is without sin, of innocent blood.
2. Thou Shall Not Kill
let him cast the first
3. God created
stone. government to carry out
4. Biblical References: capital punishment.
• Exodus 11: 13 4. Biblical References:
• John 8: 7 • Gen. 9: 6, Ex. 11: 13,
21:12 and Rom. 13: 1-7

9. Capital Punishment and Christianity
Against
1. The Death Penalty is barbaric and
unnecessary in a mature society.
“In order to oppose capital
punishment you must confront the
horror of murder, feel the loss, fear
and outrage, and s
d still be able to look
the victim’s relati
atives in the eyes and
say the murderer must live…….”

10. Capital Punishment and Christianity
For
1. The DEATH PENALTY is needed in today’s
society to act as a DETERRENT and a
means of PROTECTING the rights and
freedoms of citizens”.
“In order to support CAPITAL
PUNISHMENT, y must be able
, you
to look into the eyes of the
condemned man recognize his
man,
humanity, see how he got to that
point and tell him he must die
die…..”

11. Blue states have no death penalty statute.
Yellow-green pro death pena no executions since 1976..
nalty
Reddish-orange states have executed people since 1976.
ve

12. As with Abortion Euthanasia,
Abortion,
Suicide and Capital Punishment
is man usurping (seizing) the
sovereign will and authority of God.
nd
It is man desiring to become God,
ing
to decide who lives and who
doesn’t.
It is a rebellion against God’s
authority.

13. Many Americans,
including C
g Christians,
hold differing views on
• whether or not EUTHANASIA
should become legal and
• whether the DEATH PENALTY
should remain so.

15. Are there any exam
mples of Euthanasia
and Suicide in the Bible?
1. King Abimelech commited suicide assisted by
his armor bearer. Judges 9:50
9:50-55.
2. King Saul commited sui
suicide. His armor bearer
refuses to assist him so he falls on his sword.
I Samuel 31:4
3. Judas Iscariot was the most infamous suicide
when betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
Hung himself. Matthew 27:5

16. Are there any exam
mples of Euthanasia
and Suicide in the Bible?
Note: Three considerations
1. The Bible is God’s Wor but is also a history
ord
book. It does not CONDONE the suicides, it just
reports it.
2. The Bible makes it clear, SUICIDE IS WRONG.
3. Except in the case of CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
administered by the g government, the taking
of any life, even our own before God’s time,
is WRONG.

17. Examples of Euthanasia in the US
1. Karen Quinlan
• March 1954 to June 1985
2. Teri Schiavo
• Dec. 1963 to
April 2005.
Both cases beca
came court battles
over the RIGHT TO LIFE and
Euthanasia issues.

18. Infamous Dr. Death or Jack
Kevorkian believed in a
terminal patient’s right to
die and assisted in 130
patients to that end. “
“Dying
is not a crime
crime.“
From 1999 and 2007 Kevorkian served 8
07,
years of a 10-to-25-year prison sentence
year
for 2nd degree murder.
Paroled, June 1, 2007 and still supports a
07
terminal patient’s right to die
die.

19. Physician assisted suicide is
ILLEGAL in the United States
EXCEPT for Oregon (1994) and
Washington ( (2008) which
passed the Death With
Dignity Act.
US Supreme Court case, Washington v.
Glucksberg, ruled, 9-0, that there’s no
0,
constitutional right to physician assisted
suicide in 1997.
BUT as with Same Sex Marriage
Marriage----Full Faith
and Credit Clause and 14th Amendment

20. We, As Christians Affirm That
All human life is SACRED, is a GIFT
from God, is of VALUE at every stage
of development, is the source of
HUMAN DIGNITY and the basis
for HUMAN EQUALITY
EQUALITY.
No One Is Worthless Whom God
Has Created And Whom
Christ Died For!

21. Relativism Absolutes
Recognize that the worth of Treat all human life as of
human life varies equal worth
There are occasions where Never intentionally take
Death With Dignity is JUST human life
Respect a person’s desire to Never take your own life and
live or die try to prevent others’ from
taking theirs
Bring children into the world Be fruitful and multiply
only if they are wanted
Do not discriminate on the Treat all human life as more
basis of species precious than any non-
non-
human life

22. Relativism Absolutes
"Those who believe “When life is
strongly that death devalued, it slowly
must come without depreciates further
physician assistance, over time and the
are not free to force right to die will
their views, their eventually be
religious convictions, transformed into a
or their philosophies duty to die.”
on all other members
of a democratic
society."

23. Relativism Absolutes
"Our society, basing
"We've got a duty to its view primarily on
die and get out of the the fundamental
way with all of our values of Judaism and
machines and Christianity, has
artificial hearts and always forbidden the
everything else like taking of innocent life
that and let the other and has considered
society, our kids, build
a reasonable life." that act one of the
most serious, if not the
most serious, breaches
of morality possible."

24. Relativism Absolutes
"I believe when the “We must be concerned
defective child shall with what the next step
have reached the age of of PAS. Societies tend to
five years . . . that the expand the number of
conditions and groups
case should be targeted for this ‘special
considered under law by treatment’ or ‘final
a competent medical solution,’ and I agree
board." The board with the concerns about
would be authorized "to the impact of medically
relieve that defective . . . sanctioned suicide on
of the agony of living." the poor and
handicapped."

25. Relativism Absolutes
Derek Humphrey was "Moreover, euthanasia
asked the reason that and PAS are socially
euthanasia has gained disastrous. They are
momentum in recent not containable by
years. He responded by placing legal limits on
saying that, their practice.
Arguments to the
“Roe v. Wade was the contrary, the ‘slippery
turning point. Its right slope’ is an
to privacy and right to inescapable logical,
choose emphasis gave psychological,
credence to the historical, and
euthanasia argument.” empirical reality."

28. GOD IS SOVEREIGN OVER LIFE AND DEATH
Job 1:20 - 22
20Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved
re
his head; and he fell to the ground and
worshiped.
21And he said: Naked I came from my
mother's womb, And n d naked shall I return
there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has
taken away; Blessed be the name of the
Lord.
22In all this Job did not sin nor charge God
with wrong.

29. GOD IS SOVEREIGN OVER LIFE AND DEATH
Psalms 139:16
Your eyes have seen my unformed
substance; And in Your book were all
;
written. The days that were ordained for
me, When as yet there was not one of them.
re
Deuteronomy 32:39
The Lord says, See now that I myself am
He! There is no god besides me, I put to
!
death and I bring to life I have wounded
life,
and I will heal, and no one can deliver out
of my hand.

30. BIBLE SPECIFICALLY
CONDEMNS THE TAKING OF LIFE
Genesis 9:6:Whoever sheds man's blood, By
Whoever
man his blood shall be sh
shed, For in the image of
God, He made man.
Exodus 20:13: You shall not murder.
Matthew 5:21: You have heard that the ancients
ve
were told, YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER and
Whoever commits murde shall be liable to the
rder
court.

31. OUR BODY AS WELL AS OUR SOUL AND
SPIRIT BELONG TO GOD
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of
the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from
God, and that you are not your own?
20For you have been bought with a price: therefore
glorify God in your body.
Galatians 2:20:
20I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer
ith
I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I
s
now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

32. GOD HAS A PURPOSE FOR EVERYTHING EVEN WHEN
WE DON’T UNDERSTAND THAT PURPOSE
Romans 11: 33
33Oh, the depth of the riches both of
the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments
and unfathomable His ways!

33. GOD HAS A PURPOSE FOR EVERYTHING EVEN WHEN
WE DON’T UNDERSTAND THAT PURPOSE
James 4:13-15
13Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow
we will go to such and su a city, and spend a
such
year there and engage in business and make a
profit.
14Yet you do not know whwhat your life will be like
tomorrow. You are just a vvapor that appears for
a little while and then vanishes away.
15Instead, you ought to sa If the Lord wills, we
say,
will live and also do this or that.

34. SUFFERING HAS A PLACE IN GOD’S ECONOMY
2 Corinthians 1: 8
8For we do not want you to be unaware,
brethren, of our affliction which came to us in
Asia, that we were burdened excessively,
beyond our strength, so to that we despaired even
of life;
2 Corinthians 12: 6-8
6For if I do wish to boast I will not be foolish, for
st
I will be speaking the truth; but I refrain from
this, so that no one will credit me with more
than he sees in me or hears from me.

35. SUFFERING HAS A PLACE IN GOD’S ECONOMY
2 Corinthians 12: 6-8 8
7Because of the surpassing greatness of
the revelations, for this reason, to keep me
his
from exalting myself, t
lf, there was given me a
thorn in the flesh, a me
messenger of Satan to
torment me to keep me from exalting
myself!
8Concerning this I impmplored the Lord three
times that it might leave me.

36. AS A RESULT OF ADAM AND EVE’S SIN,
DEATH IS INEVITABLE
Romans 5:12:
12
Therefore, just as through one man sin
entered into the world, and death through sin,
and so death spread to all men, because all
sinned;
Romans 6:23:
23
For the wages of sin is d
death, but the free gift
of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

37. Hippocratic Oath
“I will never give a deadly drug to
e
anybody if asked for it, nor will I
make a suggestion to this effect.”
Every Physician Practicing
Medicine Takes This Oath.

38. Conclusion to Euthanasia
1. John MacArthur suggests
• Letting Die: is an acceptable option when
ac
death is both imminent and inevitable.
• Living Will/Power of Attorney is one
Attorney:
form of advance directive, leaving
instructions for treatment.
• Hospice: is an end of life care
: care---NOT
EUTHANASIA

39. Dr. Keith Essex, pro
professor at Master’s
Seminary provides Four Biblical
guidelines when confronting death.
---Ecclesiastes 3: 2: A
1. Death is inevitable---
time to give birth and a time to die; A time to
d
plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
---1
2. Death is the enemy--- Corinthians 15:26:
The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

40. Dr. Keith Essex, pro
professor at Master’s
Seminary provides Four Biblical
guidelines when confronting death.
11:21-22: 21By
3. Dying is a process--- Hebrews 11:21
faith Jacob, as he was dyin blessed each of the sons
ying,
of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his
staff. 22By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made
mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave
t
orders concerning his bones.
4. Suffering is a part of life and death
death---Romans
8:18: For I consider that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with
the glory that is to be revealed to us.

41. Conclusion to Euthanasia
2. Instead of mercy killing Christians
killing,
need to exhibit mercy living
living.
• Pray for, visit and care for the dying.
• Euthanasia is NOT a good death
• Christians having strong faith
throughout life and even unto death
are ones who die well.
3. Slippery slope argument
argument-----What’s
next?

42. Something To Think About
1. President Obama’s Health
Care Plan.
2. Utilitarianism is described "the
Utilitarianism:
greatest good for the greatest
number of people". Always act in
the way that will produce the
reatest overall amount of good
gre
in the world.
3. Imago Dei is a concept that
Host of Breakpoint asserts that human beings are
Chuck Colson created in God's image and
•Defend the Truth therefore have inherent value
•Live the Faith independent of their utility or
•Advance the Kingdom function.

43. 1. NAZI Euthanasia
implemented after the
Nuremberg Laws of 1935.
• terminally ill & psychiatric
patients
• Handicapped children
Remember
• Mentally ill, retarded adults
Those in
• Criminally insane, epileptics,
power decided
polio victims, schizophrenics,
who was
senile & paralysis
valuable and
• All valueless individuals:
who was not.
• Jews and non
non-Germans
• Result 12 million killed
Result:
(approximate)

44. I encourage each and everyone of you, to
examine the proposed H Health Care Reform Bill.
There are many “questiotionable” words, phrases,
and committees which need explanation.
Please understand, I’m not telling you to
support it or reject it, but as Christians, we
need to understand the potential direction our
e
country may decide to go.
Overview of HR 3200, Health Care Reform Bill
HR 3200 Health Care Reform Bill
Arguments for National Care Reform
Arguments For and Against National Health Care Reform