Q • Are those who ask Dr. Kevorkian to assist them in ending their life justified in doing so because of the pain and suffer­ing they live with?

A • Those who are asking Dr. Kevorkian to assist them in ending their life are committing suicide. They are no less guilty than persons who commit suicide without the assistance of a person such as Dr. Kevorkian. They, as well as Dr. Kevorkian himself, are guilty of breaking the sixth com­mandment, “Thou shalt not kill”.

Now it is true that these peo­ple are experiencing much pain and suffering. Those who have committed suicide in this way have done so because of the ail­ments of old age, or because of sickness, such as cancer, which has given them great pain. This does not mean, however, that they may put an end to their life.

God is the giver of life, and the only one Who has the right to take life away. Job confessed this when all his children died, for he said, “the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). Those who take their life with the aid of Dr. Kevorkian are denying and under­mining this idea of the sanctity of life.

Man has no right to decide when he wishes to end his life. When a person does so he sins greatly, for he is no different from the one who commits suicide by taking a gun and shooting him­self. God alone is the one Who has the right to end our earthly life. The sanctity of life has already been denied through the issue of abortion, but sad to say it is also becoming denied through the issue of euthanasia.

Another problem with those who end their life through assist­ed suicide (as well as through any other form of suicide) is that they are being ruthlessly selfish. All they think about is themselves. They have no thought for the fam­ily they leave behind. This family has to live with the fact that their loved one committed suicide, and this causes great anguish and much hurt. The person commit­ting suicide thinks only of reliev­ing himself from the pain and suf­fering of this earthly life.

Those who commit suicide do not acknowledge that the pain and suffering that they are experi­encing are a result of sin. They deny this and selfishly think that by ending their life they can put an end to their suffering and pain. But God will hold them account­able for this great sin. Will they really escape suffering and pain by ending their earthly life?

The answer in the March issue was written by Daniel Kleyn.