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"There is a way which seemeth right
unto a man,
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| According to the Bible, life is
precious. Jesus said that He came to give us abundant life (John 10:10)
He identified Himself as being life incarnate. (John 14:6)
When the Virgin Mary was pregnant, she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was six months pregnant. Both Elizabeth and her baby (John the Baptist) recognized that their Lord had come. The baby leaped for joy inside Elizabeth's womb. This shows that John the Baptist was spiritually sensitive and able to respond to Jesus even though he and Jesus had not been born yet. The Bible says,
According to the Bible, babies are a gift from God. Babies are often inconvenient and expensive, but according to the Bible, they are blessings. In Bible days (and today in many parts of the world), people depended on their children to take care of them in their old age. But in modern America, many people look to the government to take care of them instead of their children. Perhaps that is one reason why some people no longer agree with the Bible. It says,
The Bible says that death is an enemy. (1 Corinthians 15:26) In 1973, the Supreme Court declared that abortion is legal. This opened the door to perceiving death as a helpful friend instead of an enemy. Since then there has been a progressive movement to allow more and more forms of killing people. "Mercy killing" and physician assisted suicide have become more and more socially acceptable. (You can read about this online.) [Note 1]
Medical care has been refused for patients who want to receive it, and who would benefit from it. It has been refused contrary to the expressed wishes of patients and their families. Patients are dying because doctors refuse to give them medical treatment. This is happening in modern America. Detailed information about this is given in Wesley J. Smith's book, "Culture of Death" (Encounter Books, 2000). I will describe two cases where online information is available which you can read for yourself. In one case, a premature baby named Ryan needed dialysis but his doctor ruled that the treatment would be "futile" and he stopped the treatment. Ryan's parents got a court order to require the doctor to give him dialysis. The doctor and hospital administrators swore in court that Ryan's condition was fatal and that he had no chance for survival. They even accused Ryan's parents of child abuse (presumably because keeping the infant alive would cause suffering due to his illness). Ryan's parents transferred him to another hospital which was willing to give him treatment. Ryan recovered, he was weaned off of the dialysis, and he lived until he was four years old. Ryan was a sickly child, but he was loving and joyful. He died young, but he had four good years with his family. [Note 2] "Futile care theory" denies medical care (including food and water) to patients if their doctors believe that the patients will die or will have a poor "quality of life" if they survive. Doctors use various criteria to determine whether or not a patient's "quality of life" is good. Studies have shown that patients often disagree with the assessments of their doctors. Many sick or handicapped patients enjoy their lives. They live productive lives in spite of their problems. A well known example is Joni Erikson Tada, a quadriplegic who writes books and paints beautiful pictures (holding a brush in her mouth). Joni's books, radio segments, and speaking engagements minister to many people. [See Note 2.] Another case of "futile care" involved a teenager named Christopher Campbell who was brain-damaged because of a car accident. He was unconscious for one month and he developed a 106-degree fever. His doctor refused to do anything to control the fever, saying that Christopher's case was hopeless and medical treatment would be futile. When Christopher's father threatened legal action, the doctor finally treated the fever. It subsided almost immediately. Four months later, Christopher regained consciousness and he recovered. He has some disabilities, but he counsels troubled teenagers and he created a foundation which feeds thirty African children every day. [Note 3] For fifteen years, some American hospitals and nursing homes have been denying food and fluids to people who are unable to speak for themselves. In some cases they are doing this against the wishes of patients and families. This is involuntary euthanasia, making patients die of thirst and starvation in spite of the fact that they want to live. More and more hospitals have written protocols saying that "futile health care" (including food and water) should not be provided. In addition, state and federal legislation has been introduced to empower doctors to deny life-sustaining medical treatment, even when patients and their families want it. [Note 4] Some experts in bioethics want to redefine death in terms of brain function (as opposed to the absence of vital signs such as heartbeat and breathing.) If they succeed, then the term "death" will include people who are in comas. This would enable surgeons to legally harvest fresh, living organs for organ transplants. [Note 5] There have been cases where "brain dead" people were declared to be dead, but they were kept alive on life support machines in order to do medical research on them. Some scientists refer to these "brain dead" people as "living cadavers". They are also called "neomorts". They can be kept alive as "storage" for organs to be used for transplants. They can also be used for research, and for training doctors and surgeons. The theory is that they are already dead, and therefore they can't be harmed if doctors practice surgery on them or use them for research. [Note 6] Dr. Margaret Lock interviewed doctors and nurses who are involved in doing organ transplants. She discovered that the majority of organ transplants come from people who are "brain dead". These are not cold corpses which are stiff from rigor mortis. Rather, these are people with warm bodies and beating hearts. Dr. Lock wrote a book about this titled "Twice Dead: Organ Transplants and the Reinvention of Death" (University of California Press, 2001). According to the book, the motive for redefining death in terms of brain function was to enable doctors to use living organs for transplants. [Note 7] Vocabulary is an important weapon in the fight to implement medical procedures which are contrary to Christian morality. "Living cadaver" and "warm cadaver" are terms which are emotionally shocking. But once you replace those terms with a technical medical word, the emotional impact disappears. The word "neomort" does not have the emotional impact of "living cadaver". Similarly, "organ storage" does not have the same emotional impact as "keeping brain dead people alive in order to harvest their organs". I'll demonstrate the difference which vocabulary can make by stating similar things in two different ways.
Do you see what a difference vocabulary makes? This may explain why the redefinition of death has become so widespread. It is stated in technical medical terms by "experts" in medical ethics. How many legislators would understand what it really means or what its practical implications could be? In most nations, brain death is the legal standard which is used for organ transplants. In other words, if the "donor" is declared to be brain dead, then his or her organs can be harvested for use as transplants. Some countries have "opt-in" organ donation programs. People must specify that they want their organs to be used for transplants. Other countries have "opt-out" programs. (This is known as "presumed consent".) Unless people have clearly specified that they do not want their organs to be used for transplants, then their organs can be taken if they become brain dead. In America, all 50 states have laws, regulations, or judicial decisions which define death in terms of brain function. [Note 8] Using brain function to define death is a problem because there have been cases where "brain dead" people have recovered. A recent example is Tanya Liu Hai-juo, a Japanese newscaster. In May 2002, Tanya was injured in a train accident. Doctors declared her to be brain dead. Three months later, Tanya regained consciousness. A book has been published about her recovery from brain death. [Note 9] Suicide is being promoted by some doctors. Dr. Kevorkian is well known, but there are also others. An Australian physician named Dr. Nitschke gives workshops to teach people how to commit suicide. He has invented a suicide machine which is inexpensive and easy to use. (It produces carbon monoxide, which kills people painlessly.) He wants to make it available to everybody (as opposed to just using it for people with painful, terminal illnesses). He wants to make it available to troubled (but otherwise healthy) teenagers and depressed (but otherwise healthy) adults. [Note 10] Some people advocate physician assisted suicide for children and young teenagers. Holland has a law which formally allows euthanasia. The original bill included a provision which said that children between the ages of 12 and 16 could request euthanasia and the doctor would provide it, even if their parents objected. There was an international outcry against having children be killed by doctors contrary to the wishes of their parents. Due to international pressure, that provision was removed from the Dutch bill before it became law. Dr. Nitschke (an Australian) also believes that children should be allowed to choose euthanasia. [Note 11] Holland legally allows voluntary euthanasia. However, there are also reported cases of involuntary euthanasia, of patients being killed without their consent. In 1990, there were 1,040 cases where patients were killed by doctors without the consent of the patient. In addition, 8,100 patients were given overdoses of pain medication in order to make them die faster. In 4,941 of those cases, it was done without the consent of the patient. Many elderly people in Holland are afraid to go to the hospital for fear that they will be killed. [Note 12] Dr. Herbert Hendin has researched euthanasia in Holland. He wrote a book about it titled "Seduced By Death--Doctors, Patients and the Dutch Cure". Hendin says that Dutch doctors have privately told him that euthanasia is out of control in Holland. A study found that in thousands of cases, doctors made decisions to kill patients who were fully competent without consulting the patients. [Note 13] In Nazi Germany, years before World War II and the concentration camps, German doctors quietly killed hundreds of thousands of "useless eaters". Doctors were not coerced into doing this. Rather, some doctors voluntarily killed patients, thinking that they were doing a good thing. At first, they killed people with serious disabilities such as quadruple amputees. Then they killed mentally retarded people, disabled children, mentally ill people, patients with disabling diseases such as multiple sclerosis, and elderly people. Six psychiatric hospitals had gas chambers, which were later dismantled and moved to concentration camps. [Note 14] The killing started with severely handicapped people. It was expanded to include people who were mentally handicapped, physically disabled, or elderly. (They were called "useless eaters" because they were not "productive".) Eventually Germany had concentration camps for killing Jews, Gypsies, and people who were politically incorrect. This demonstrates that once physicians are given authority to kill people who are "useless," then that definition can be expanded to include more and more people. [See Note 14] The term "quality of life" could also be expanded once the concept is accepted. In the U.S.S.R., the authorities said that Christians were mentally ill because they believed in God. Christians were put in mental hospitals for "treatment". They were not considered to be "cured" unless they renounced their faith. Some of these Christians were given medications which impaired their mental functioning so badly that they were reduced to a "vegetative" state. One Christian man spent 25 years in a mental hospital because he refused to renounce his faith. [Note 15] The Soviet authorities must not have believed that Christians had a good quality of life. Otherwise, they would not have tried to "cure" them of the "mental illness" of believing in God. This demonstrates that when "experts" decide whether or not other people have a good quality of life, it can ultimately result in religious persecution. Today, in Communist China, Christians are being forcibly committed to mental hospitals. So are members of other religious groups. Political dissidents (people who are politically incorrect) are also being put into mental hospitals. Some of these people are being tortured in the hospitals. [Note 16] Several human rights organizations report that China is selling the organs of executed prisoners for use in transplants. In some cases the organs were removed before the prisoners had been killed. Some of these prisoners were executed for minor offenses such as theft or tax evasion. Amnesty International believes that the reason for some of the executions is to be able to sell the organs of the prisoners. China has a lot of executions. According to Amnesty International, in the three months from April to June 2001, China had at least 2,960 death sentences and 1,781 executions. That is more executions than the rest of the world had for the three-year period 1998 to 2000. [Note 17] Dr. Wang Guoqi, a Chinese doctor, testified to the U.S. Congress that he personally helped remove kidneys, corneas and skin from executed prisoners. (Skin is used for burn victims.) Sometimes there were group executions in order to meet the demand for organs. On one occasion Dr. Wang was required to remove the skin of a prisoner who was still alive because his execution had been botched. Dr. Wang said that some organs were sold to foreigners, including Americans. Kidneys sold for as much as $30,000 apiece. [See Note 17.] A New York doctor who specializes in kidney transplants claims that some of his Chinese-American patients went to China in order to get kidney transplants. The source of the kidneys was prisoners who had been executed. Two Chinese "organ brokers" were arrested in New York as a result of an FBI "sting" operation. They arranged for Americans to fly to China for kidney transplants. They also arranged to smuggle frozen corneas out of China for sale in America. [Note 18] The sale of organs is being done without the consent of the prisoners or their families. It is usually done without the knowledge of the families. According to Chinese law, written consent is required unless the family of the executed prisoner fails to claim the body. Chinese officials get around the requirement for consent by doing the execution quickly, without warning, so that the family doesn't know about it. Then they can say that the family failed to claim the body. By the time the family knows about the execution, the prisoner has been cremated, so they can't even tell if the organs were removed. The families get no benefit from the sale of the organs. Only the Chinese government does. The prisoners are being treated like property which is owned by the government. [See Note 19] Some of these organs may come from persecuted Christians. In China, thousands of Christians have been put in prison for their faith. Some of them have been sentenced to death. There have also been cases of Christians who were tortured to death while they were in prison. Chinese authorities refer to Christianity as an "evil cult". Participation in the "evil cult" of Christianity is a crime. [Note 20] What can Christians do about all this? We can pray. And we can contact our elected representatives if legislation about "futile health care" or euthanasia is being considered. (It may be hidden inside a more comprehensive health care bill.) (You can get notifications about such things by email.) [Note 21] We can also fill out a "Will to Live" form. According to the National Right to Life, a "Will to Live" form provides more protection than a Living Will or giving someone a durable power of attorney. (Information and forms are available online.) [Note 22] As I did the research for this paper, I learned many things which are deeply disturbing and even shocking. It was a good reminder that, although the world system provides us with some good things (such as health care), if we rely on it too heavily, it will let us down. We need to remember that only God is totally trustworthy. Only God is worthy of our unconditional confidence and loyalty. We also need to remember that God really does make everything work out for good for Christians who love Him. (Romans 8:28) That includes premature death due to lack of medical care, or lack of food and water. If Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, then when we die, we will go to Heaven to be with Jesus. And we can trust God to take care of our loved ones. APPENDIX A You may not have thought of pregnancy in the terms I described. You may have thought that Mary and Elizabeth were carrying something that wasn't really a baby. Abortionists have told us that these weren't babies. Some women believed them and had abortions. If you are one of those women, God will forgive you if you repent. God's love and mercy are beyond our comprehension. The Apostle Paul killed people, too. Before his conversion, Paul was responsible for the deaths of many Christians. But he repented, and he trusted in God's grace and mercy, and he got on with his life. Paul said,
APPENDIX B If you have friends or family members who are in the hospital or in a nursing home, visit them often. Be thoughtful and courteous with the staff. Express appreciation for what they do. (Doctors and nurses have tough jobs, and they need appreciation and encouragement, just like we all do.) Become informed about the health situation of the patient so that you can ask intelligent questions. This will encourage the staff to provide better care for the patient for two reasons. First, it is human nature to do a better job of taking care of somebody if you care about them (or their family). Second, there is an element of accountability. The staff knows that you care about the patient and that you are paying close attention to what is going on. They also know that you have some understanding about the situation. It is human nature to be on good behavior if you know that you are being closely observed by somebody who understands the situation and really cares about the outcome.If your friend or family member is in a coma, then you need to be vigilant. I have been corresponding with a Christian physician. He believes that the "brain death" criteria can be reliable and appropriate in some circumstances. However, he also believes that the system could be abused. Sometimes people come out of deep comas. However, if a person really is "brain dead" then he or she will not come out of it (unless God does a miracle). People in deep comas and people who are "brain dead" look very much alike. Their chest is moving, their heart is beating, the patient is warm. If doctors want to do tests to find out if the patient is "brain dead," you need to be aware that the results of the examination could easily be falsified. Therefore, try to get the test done by a physician that you know and trust. If possible, have a medically knowledgeable friend present during the examination. You may also want to be present yourself. Would anybody actually have a motive to abuse the "brain death" system? There could be financial motives. Hospitals can actually lose money when taking care of some patients. In that situation, if the patient dies, then the hospital will save money. Another motive could be the need for organs for transplants. I have no problem with "pulling the plug" and letting a patient die a natural death. However, it is another matter to have a surgeon cut out the beating heart of a "brain dead" patient for use as a transplant. In that case, the surgeon directly causes the physical death of the patient. Some Christians will disagree with me, especially if they have loved ones who need heart transplants. God knows our hearts and He understands our struggles. Only He has all the right answers. If you are in that position, then please pray for wisdom. The matter is between you and God. USE OF THIS ARTICLE I encourage you to link to this article. You have permission to quote from this article, as long as you do it fairly and accurately. You have permission to make copies of this article for friends and for use in classes. Please contact me if you want to put this article on your website. (My email address is at the end of the article.) Please contact me if you want to publish this article, either separately or as part of something else (such as a newsletter or a collection of articles). NOTES 1. Articles demonstrating how abortion ultimately led to infantacide, euthanasia, and “living cadavers” (“neomorts”) -- “brain dead” (but physically alive) people whose organs are “harvested” to be used for transplants. 2. Articles about “futile care theory” by Wesley J. Smith (an attorney who is a watchdog about this issue).
A description of what happens to patients when food and water are denied to them. According to the article, this is the most common method of “mercy killing”. The website of Joni Erikson Tada, a quadriplegic who writes books, paints, and speaks publicly. 3. The story of Christopher Campbell and the doctor who refused to treat his fever. 4. The practice of refusing to give patients “futile” medical care, including food and water. The second article discusses hospital protocols and “futile care” legislation.
Patients have died for lack of medical care because HMO’s wanted to save money. 5. Some bioethics experts are attempting to redefine death in terms of brain function, rather than the absence of vital signs such as heartbeat, breathing and reflexes. This would enable doctors to harvest fresh, living organs for organ transplants. Detailed, documented information about this is given in Wesley J. Smith’s book, “Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America” (Encounter Books, 2000). Links to online articles about it are given below.
6. Articles about medical uses for “living cadavers” (brain dead people). They are also called “neomorts”.
An article which describes “neomortoria”. These are hospital units which are dedicated to maintaining “neomorts” (brain dead people) on life-support systems so that they can be used for organ donations, medical training, or research. The discussion of neomorts starts in the third paragraph of the section titled “Defining Death”. It is about 1/6 of the way down the page. “The Politics of Death”. This article mentions that neomorts are not given anesthesia when their organs are removed for use in transplants, because there is no need to anesthetize people who are legally considered to be dead. 7. Margaret Lock, “Twice Dead: Organ Transplants and the Reinvention of Death” (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001). Descriptions of the book mentions that the majority of organ transplants come from people who are “brain dead” (in other words, from living people who are in “irreversable” comas ).
8. Most nations use brain death as the legal standard to determine if organs can be used for transplants. In America, all 50 states define death in terms of brain function.
Some European and South American countries have “presumed consent” for organ donation. Unless people have officially recorded an objection to having their organs be removed for transplants, they can be used. http://www.worldtravelcenter.com/jetstream/newsweather/newsletter/Aug00/organ.htm 9. Tanya Liu recovered after being declared “brain dead”. The article is in French. Directions for getting a computer-generated translation are given below the article. To translate the French article into English, copy it and paste it into Google’s translation Engine. (The address for that is given below .) Go to the second box which says “Translate” and select “French to English” from the drop-down menu. 10. Articles about an Australian doctor who developed a suicide machine.
11. Some people advocate assisted suicide for children and young teenagers. 12. Articles about euthanasia in Holland.
In Holland, “defective” infants are killed, but it routinely involves making their death appear to be from natural causes, so that doctors will not be prosecuted. 13. Quotations from physicians who have researched euthanasia in Holland. 14. Before World War II, German doctors killed “useless eaters”.
This article begins by discussing Nazi Germany’s policy of forcibly sterilizing “unfit” women. Then it discusses euthanasia, with detailed information about killing mental patients. 15. This article tells of Soviet Christians who were sent to mental hospitals. One man was there for 25 years because he refused to denounce his faith.
16. Communist China is putting people into mental hospitals because of their religion. Some of these people are tortured in the hospitals. Articles from Falun Gong websites. They mention that members of the Falun Gong and other religious groups (including Christians) are being put into mental hospitals because of their religion. Some of them are being tortured in the hospitals. People who are political dissidents (politically incorrect) are also being put into mental hospitals.
Articles by Human Rights Watch. They mention the Falun Gong but not Christians. However, according to two Falun Gong websites (above), Christians are also considered to be “religious dissidents” and are also locked up in mental hospitals. The articles say that the reason why these people were brought to the mental hospitals for evaluation is that they expressed views which “offended the polititical sensitivities” of the Communists. Since Communists are atheists, Christianity offends them.
These articles mention “dissidents” and “nonconformists” but don’t specifically mention Christians. However, Christians are nonconformists in a Communist society because they believe in God, and because their primary loyalty is to God rather than to the state.
17. China has been selling the organs of executed prisoners.
18. An American doctor claims that some of his patients have gone to China to get organ transplants using organs from executed prisoners.
19. The organs of Chinese prisoners are removed without the consent of the prisoners or their families.
20. Christians in China are being put in prison for their faith. Some are sentenced to death.
21. “Citizen Link” is an online magazine of Focus on the Family. They will send you email notifications about information relating to family values. You can choose which issues you want to get information about. Concerned Women for America also sends email notifications. They inform people about legislation relating to Christian values. Their home page has a box called “Get E-Alerts” where you can sign up. It is presently in the right hand column, near the bottom of the page. 22. Information about the “Will to Live”. This includes background information, an article, suggestions for filling out the form, and forms. There is a list of states. There are different versions of the form which correspond to the laws of individual states. |
Copyright 2003 by Mary Ann Collins.
All rights reserved. www.KeyChristianIssues.com e-Mail: KeyChristianIssues@Juno.Com |
KC 001 05/17/2007