The Canadian Parliament recently strongly defeated a bill that would have legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide. The vote was 228 to 59.
Rev. Mark Stephenson, director of Disability Concerns for the Christian Reformed Church, was more than happy about the defeat.
“I praise God for the defeat of [this bill]. It violated the basic principle that all people are made in God’s image, and would have moved Canadian society toward becoming a culture of death,” he said. “This bill was particularly dangerous for people living with disabling conditions, because some people would feel pressure to ‘get out of the way’ so as not to be a burden to their loved ones. A ‘right to die with dignity’ would become an obligation to die.”
Stephenson said society should not be making it easier for people to die, but should help everyone live a full life.
“As children of God in Jesus Christ, we have a significant contribution to make to this dialogue because we affirm the intrinsic worth of every person not based on what he or she can do, but on who he or she is as an image-bearer of God,” he said.
