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Carl Keener MD wrote a guest editorial posted 1/28/2010 in the Helena IR. The title “People have right to die with dignity” and his text illustrate the ideological difference in the clash of world views involved in the issue of physician assisted suicide. Most believe people have a right to die with dignity. The ideological difference lies in how “dignity” is defined and where it comes from.
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The secular humanist view is that each human being is sovereign, answerable only to themselves. Human autonomy and personal freedom are at the peak of the hierarchy of values and are what gives humans dignity. Secular Humanists think so highly of our species, that they believe there is a group of elites capable of deciding whose life is worth living—who should be allowed to live or die. These elites are so smart, if they create the right environment, humans will naturally do the right thing.
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The Judeo-Christian world view states that God is sovereign. We are answerable to Him, and our life and rights come from Him. Every human life is sacred and of utmost value because God made it so. Human dignity has its basis in the sanctity God has given it irrespective of intelligence, level of education, physical abilities, etc. While humans have this intrinsic dignity, they are also depraved in need of a redeemer and the rule of law.
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Our country’s founding documents and the writings of our founding fathers reveal the Judeo-Christian world view is the one on which this country was built. Our founding fathers knew from history and their own personal experience the reality of human depravity and our tendencies that require rule of law. No matter the lofty claims of the large variety of ideologies promoted throughout history, humans have managed to make a mess of them.
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Suicide has been illegal in this country from its beginning. Laws against suicide are based on our nation’s founding principle that life comes from God, as the Declaration of independence asserts. Life and the right to life do not come from government and not from us, but from God. Autonomy and freedom do not include the right to do harm to other humans, including to ourselves.
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Dr. Keener promotes physician assisted suicide and apparently euthanasia so that a person doesn’t die alone. Whether or not a person dies alone depends more on the value of life a culture promotes than on the willingness of a physician to stand by their side while they give a lethal injection. It is reasonable to conclude that the elderly and the sick are less likely to die alone if their families live in a culture that promotes the intrinsic value of every human being.
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Dr. Keener builds the case for physician assisted suicide by tugging at our emotions with details of human suffering in the dying process. What he doesn’t tell you is that current medical technology is capable of controlling pain to a great extent and that giving high doses of pain medications is legal and moral. They can be given in progressive doses if that is required to control pain, even if those high doses contribute to death. That is not considered assisted suicide. Furthermore, a bottle of a certain over-the counter medication will more assuredly bring death than any combination of pills a suicide assisting physician prescribes. Since Dr. Keener knows that over-the-counter medication is all that’s needed to kill oneself, it follows that promotion of secular humanism and getting the medical field on board with it are his true agenda rather than death with dignity.
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The sacred trust between physician and patient will be severely eroded if euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are legalized. Death is a much easier and cheaper option than lovingly caring for the dying individual, and legalization opens the door to coercion and even forced euthanasia for those individuals deemed unworthy of life.
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Through the vehicle of government-run media and schools, this culture has shifted to the secular humanist ideology. It is imposed on our population. We need to shift back to our foundational principles. Laws help advance and protect what a society values. Since we need laws and laws inevitably impose morality, it seems prudent to promote laws that are based on uncompromised reverence for the dignity and worth of each human person no matter what their physical state. Laws and judicial opinions that support physician assisted suicide devalue human life and need to be emphatically opposed.
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Dr. Annie Bukacek MD |