Under current laws, Dutch doctors can euthanize children older than 12 and younger than 1 with parental consent. “This is just closing the gap that was left,” Michel Shoun of Life Matters Worldwide says.

Lawmakers in the Netherlands aren’t the only European leaders loosening euthanasia norms.

“Belgium, their next-door neighbor, has very liberal euthanasia laws,” Shoun notes. Great Britain could see legislation by 2025 – a move discouraged by a former euthanasia advocate Dr. Bert Keizer.

(Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels)

“Thankfully, I don’t believe there’s any movement here [in the U.S.] to do similar things with minors and young people because we have pretty strong informed consent laws,” Shoun says.

“Whether it’s sexual activity and minors, or a kid being able to get an aspirin at school, they have to have a note from home. It’s assumed that young people can’t give consent for certain things.”

Christians serve a Lord that has risen from the dead, and this high regard for life has often led them to oppose euthanasia legislation. Pray many would see the love of Christians and seek the living hope of Jesus.

Life matters

Saving humanity is the heartbeat of the Gospel. It’s why Life Matters Worldwide partners with pro-life ministries around the world to establish and sustain them as effective Gospel outreaches.

Through its LIFT program, Life Matters equips church partners to come alongside families caring for elderly, terminally, or chronically ill people. As described here, LIFT divides needs and tasks into manageable chores that can be shared by several volunteers. No single individual, pastor, or deacon has to meet needs alone.

Learn more about LIFT here.

In the header image, two young girls with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) receiving chemotherapy. The girl on the left has an IV tube in the neck, the other girl’s IV is in her arm. They are sitting on a bed and are demonstrating some of the procedures and techniques used with chemotherapy.  (Photo, caption courtesy of National Cancer Institute via Unsplash)

State leaders are making end-of-life decisions, too. Bills that legalize medically-assisted suicide are being considered in Maryland, New Jersey, and New Mexico.

Eric Verstraete, President of Life Matters Worldwide, tells us Christians need to pay attention. “I think it’s been a real wake-up call,” he says.

“We are citizens of this country, we have to be concerned about what’s going on in the legislature because – as we can see from these bills that are being passed – it is attacking life at its essence.”

Life and death decisions

At 24 weeks, a preborn baby can move, swallow, and hear.
(Screenshot from BabyCenter.com)

Last month, Verstraete highlighted the US “abortion debate” as a sanctity of life issue. On January 22 – two days after Sanctuary of Human Life Sunday – New York legislators passed the Reproductive Health Act (RCA) into law. The decision started a new level of controversy.

The RCA allows doctors to perform abortions past the 24th week of pregnancy, which is near the end of the second trimester. As described here, babies at the 24-week stage weigh just over one pound and are roughly the same size as an ear of corn. They can move, swallow, and hear sounds.  Pre-born babies in this stage are especially vulnerable to pain, this Canadian neurologist explains, because “the pain system is fully established, yet the higher level pain-modifying system has barely begun to develop.”

Today, says Verstraete, the conversation about life expands to include end-of-life legislation.

“Both of these groups of people – the preborn and those who are at the end of life – unfortunately, are not seen as an asset. They are seen as a liability… that paradigm needs to shift.”

(Stock photo courtesy hush naidoo via Unsplash)

In Maryland, lawmakers are considering the “End-of-Life Option Act,” which would allow patients with six months or less to live to ask doctors for help in ending their life. As described by Bethesda Magazine,

The bill would require dying patients to ask for life-ending medication themselves, and two witnesses would need to verify in writing that the patient was “of a sound mind” and was acting voluntarily. Only one of the witnesses could be a relative, and a neither witness could be the patient’s physician.

Similar bills are working through the legislative process in New Jersey and New Mexico.

What now?

Now that you know, how will you respond? “As citizens of this country, we have to be concerned about what’s going on,” notes Verstraete.  First and foremost, he adds, the news is a call to prayer.

“We need to know what’s going on; we need to be praying for our leaders,” he says. “Even though we may disagree with them, the Bible clearly says that we need to hold them in respect and high regard.

“They (politicians) are not the enemy. I want to make sure people hear that.”

Life Matters Worldwide helps Christians protect life on both ends of the spectrum. Learn more about their work here.

“We believe that life begins at conception and has all of the necessary components to be a person and to have value and worth…and that value stays with a person until natural death occurs… [as] we like to say, ‘from womb to tomb’.”

Header and story images are stock photos obtained via Unsplash.

Abortion has increasingly become a political issue, too. President Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh last fall created the potential for a conservative majority on the Supreme Court and made the overturn of Roe v Wade a possibility. Earlier this month, pro-choice magistrate Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s health status once again brought the issue of abortion into conversation.

According to the Associated Press, legislators are currently pushing for either more access to abortion services or more restrictions at the state level. Eric Verstraete of Life Matters Worldwide says believers should pay attention.

“We need to have a good gauge of what’s going on in the political world so number one we know how to pray for those who represent us on the governmental level. Also, there are lots of ways we can get involved,” Verstraete says.

Believers tend to avoid political conversations, he adds. Often, it’s an effort to separate politics and religion. However, avoidance offers no resolution.

“It’s really important that we in the Church and the evangelical world not fall asleep at the wheel.”

While abortion is an important sanctity of life issue, Verstraete says it’s not the only one.

(Photo courtesy of Peruvian partner of Life Matters Worldwide)

“The issue is so much bigger,” he explains, observing that pro-life views and anti-abortion views are not one and the same.

“Being pro-life is not just being against abortion. It’s [answering the question], how do we raise that level of human life to a place where abortion becomes unthinkable and caring for those most vulnerable in our communities becomes the norm?”

To Verstraete, calling yourself “pro-life” means you’re an advocate of God’s design and favor for life at all stages, whether unborn or end-of-life. This is the mission of Life Matters Worldwide.

“I think being anti-abortion only focuses on one part of the equation.”

Each year, Life Matters develops free resources for churches and individual believers to use on Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. You can access them here.

Header image courtesy Anna Levinzon via Flickr.