Our senator, Ed Meyer, is sponsoring a bill (SB 48) with a stated purpose “to permit a competent person who is suffering from a terminal illness to take his or her life through the self-administration of prescribed medication.”
Speaking on behalf of the Community Baptist Church, we are saddened by this proposed legislation. We view this not only as an affront against the sanctity of life, but also against the proper recognition of the sovereignty of God over life and death.
For many, physician-assisted suicide is seen as an act of mercy. It is perceived as another form of palliative care. We understand fully the motive to help people relieve their pain. It is our contention, though, that life and death are issues relating to the purview of God’s authority. We also contend that the objective and eternal standard of the sanctity of human life is of much greater value than that of any subjective and existential measure of the quality of life or temporary desire to be released from suffering.
Not only do we find this bill wrong, but also we find it to be ambiguous. Who is a “competent person?” To what degree of “suffering” does this bill refer? Who decides what constitutes a true “terminal illness?”
We have seen people who have been deemed “terminal” miraculously recover. What about a person who cannot perform the “self-administration” described?
This bill is full of loose and “gray” language. It will eventually lead to the expanded practice of euthanasia in many forms.
We are calling on all like-minded citizens of the 12th district to ask Sen. Meyer to reconsider his sponsorship of this bill and rescind it.
Pastor Tim Zacharias
Community Baptist Church
Branford