The Daily Telegraph’s ‘Matt’ cartoon today catches a key issue in the discussion on so called Assisted Suicide. In a typically British compromise, we are not going to change the law but the Director of Public Prosecutions has set out a range of criteria that he will take into consideration when deciding whether or not to bring a prosecution against those who help a friend or relative to end their life.
I’m not sure where this actually leaves people who might wish to act in this way. Technically, they are still in breach of the law and if they go ahead they would be reliant on the DPP using his discretionary powers not to prosecute. Were they to be prosecuted (however unlikely that now seems) would they be able to use the guidlines as a defence? To what extent are Judges able to use this non-change-in-the-law to inform their view of statute law? In which case, is it not in effect an actual change in the law? Either way, it feels like a big step down the slippery slope that we have discussed previously in GospelBlog (See article 31st July).
Of course, with the wide acceptance in scientific, medical and political circles of a theory of our existence that positions us as merely remarkably well developed apes, this progression towards equalisation of animal rights to us is only to be expected! In fact, if the dominant theory in the media is as confidently held as is asserted then we should really wonder what we are pussy-footing about for. Why not go the whole hog and take this line of thinking to its logical conclusion – after all it would save trillions from healthcare budgets world-wide, it would sort out food shortages and significantly reduce the rise of global CO2 emissions? Yes, why not go ahead with a bit of pruning of the weaker elements of our species?
The reason why we baulk at this suggestion is that we instictively know, however much we may state the contrary, that we are much more than particularly big-brained animals. However we might expess it, we know that we have a soul that is self-conscious and God conscious. We instinctivly know that death is not the end for that soul – ask anyone who works in a hospice whether relatives generally feel that death is the end of an individual! On one occasion the Lord Jesus asked the rhetorical question, “Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?” (Matt 12 v12). He knew the difference and He values the soul of every individual. That is why he went to the cross – not so that he could make us better animals! But to provide a way whereby your sin could be forgiven and your soul could be reconciled to God.