Date posted: 10-20-2026
Estimated Reading Time : 7 Minutes
I’ve often noticed that when people want to make something acceptable, they start by changing the words they use to describe it.
Not many years ago, a vast majority agreed that a doctor helping a patient end his or her own life was wrong. In fact, it was considered a serious violation of medical ethics and, in most of the U.S., a crime.
Today, we are told that helping someone end their own life is an act of compassion, even medical care. But changing the language does not change the truth. Whether it is called “medical aid in dying,” “death with dignity,” euthanasia, or physician-assisted suicide, the result is still the deliberate termination of a human life.
The Biblical Foundation
The Bible gives us a clear foundation on this issue. Genesis 1:27 says that God created man in His image. That means our value does not come from our health, independence, productivity, intelligence, or comfort. Our value comes from God. A person who is sick, disabled, elderly, or dependent upon others bears the same image of God and has the same intrinsic value as someone who is young and healthy.
Sad to say, that’s a truth our society seems to be forgetting.
More and more states are embracing physician-assisted suicide. As of 2026, thirteen states and the District of Columbia have authorized physician-assisted suicide. Colorado voters approved it through Proposition 106 in 2016. Generally speaking, these laws allow a medical professional to prescribe medication that a patient can take to end his or her life.
Supporters of these laws tell us there are safeguards in place. They say the practice is limited to mentally capable adults with terminal illnesses. But here’s the thing: when people start departing from biblical principles, those limits have a way of changing.
A Slippery Slope
Once society accepts a wrong idea, it rarely stops where it started. And that’s exactly what we see happening in other countries on this issue.
For instance, Canada expanded its law to include some people whose deaths are not reasonably foreseeable. Other countries have permitted euthanasia for people suffering from psychiatric problems. Belgium and the Netherlands permit euthanasia in certain cases involving minors.
In late 2025, a doctor in the Netherlands ended the life of a severely disabled child who was nearly two years old. This was the first reported case under the country’s expanded rules for children ages one through twelve. The child had cerebral palsy, impaired vision, frequent seizures, and difficulty breathing and swallowing. The child could not communicate, understand the decision, or ask to die. Yet, the parents and doctor determined that the child’s suffering was too great, and a review committee later ruled that the doctor had followed the required procedures.
When the law allows adults to authorize the death of a child who cannot consent, something has gone terribly wrong. All those safeguards have failed to protect the person who needs them most. Disability, dependence, and suffering do not erase the image of God or make a person’s life disposable.
In October 2025, ninety-five-year-old American sculptor Jackie Ferrara traveled from New York to Switzerland to end her life through assisted suicide. According to reports, she was generally healthy. But after experiencing two falls, she feared losing her independence and becoming dependent on others.
Since she wasn’t terminally ill, she couldn’t qualify under American laws. But Switzerland’s broader system allowed an assisted-suicide organization to help her die. People praised this woman’s decision as courageous. They celebrated it as the ultimate expression of independence.
The world applauds the attitude glorified in the song “I Did It My Way.” But doing things our own way instead of God’s way is what got humanity into trouble in the first place.
If independence gives life its dignity, then dependence must diminish that dignity. If suffering makes death a reasonable solution, who decides when suffering has become too great? If needing care makes assisted suicide acceptable, what message are we sending to the elderly, disabled, depressed, and chronically ill?
True Compassion
The answer to someone who says, “I am a burden,” should never be, “Then you should end your life.” The Bible gives us a much better example. When the Good Samaritan found a wounded man, he didn’t decide the man’s life was no longer worth living. He bound up his wounds, carried him to safety, and paid for his care (Luke 10:33–35). That’s what biblical compassion looks like. It helps the suffering person and bears their burden rather than eliminating the person.
I’ve spent decades teaching on healing because the Word of God is clear: God wants you well. Jesus said that He came to give us life “more abundantly” (John 10:10). Acts 10:38 says Jesus “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.” Jesus never refused to heal anyone who came to Him. He never told a sick person that disease was God’s way of ending their life.
Isaiah 53:5 says that by His stripes we are healed, and 1 Peter 2:24 speaks of healing as an accomplished work of Christ. This shows that we don’t have to persuade God to provide healing. Jesus has already provided it through His atonement. We need to learn what belongs to us and receive it by faith.
We see evidence of this truth all the time. Every year, people come from around the world to the Healing Is Here conference at Charis Bible College, and hundreds testify of being healed from pain, disease, paralysis, depression, and other conditions. But that doesn’t mean God suddenly decided to heal them at the conference. It means they learned how to receive by faith the healing Jesus purchased for them at the cross over 2,000 years ago.
The Church needs to teach this truth more boldly. Too many Christians have heard that sickness is God’s will or that miracles passed away with the apostles. As a result, many face disease without knowing what Christ has provided. We should never condemn a sick person or suggest that someone is a failure because healing has not yet manifested. But neither should we lower God’s Word to match our experience. We need to raise our expectations to agree with Scripture.
At the same time, our opposition to assisted suicide does not depend on whether someone believes in healing or even believes in God. A person’s unbelief does not remove God from His throne. We didn’t create ourselves, so we don’t belong to ourselves. God gave us life, and life belongs to Him.
Acts 17:25 says that God gives “to all life, and breath, and all things.” We don’t have the right to murder another person, and we don’t somehow gain that right simply because the life we intend to end is our own. Suicide is self-killing. Calling it medicine does not transform it into healing.
As believers, we don’t condemn people who feel hopeless or those whose loved ones have died by suicide. They need compassion, truth, and the love of God. But compassion does not require us to agree with a deadly decision. Real love speaks truth and offers hope.
The Real Answer
In my teaching Self-Centeredness: The Source of All Grief, I explain that self-centeredness doesn’t always look like pride. Sometimes it’s becoming consumed with our pain, limitations, disappointments, and fears until we can’t see beyond ourselves. This isn’t condemnation toward people who are suffering. It’s an invitation to freedom. Jesus said we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him (Matt. 16:24). When we turn our attention from ourselves to Christ, His Word, and the needs of others, hopelessness loses its hold. The answer isn’t to end the life God gave us, but to surrender that life to Him. As we do, we discover the abundant life that only He can give.
God told His people, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life” (Deut. 30:19). That command is just as necessary today. Let us reject the lie that death is healthcare and proclaim the truth that every life belongs to the Lord, “the God of hope” (Rom. 15:13).
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