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Prayer: Our First Defense Against Physician-Assisted Suicide

Pray that health care professionals would continue to stand in their personal and religious convictions.
Brooke Brown
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We are seeing health care facilities and medical professionals attempt to 'play God' by offering physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia to patients.

Every human being has been given a unique fingerprint by God, and each of their days is written out before one of them comes to be (Psalm 139). The Maker of heaven and earth, Maker of male and female, Maker of the sea and everything in it knows each person's first and last breath.

Death was not God’s original intention when he created Adam. It wasn’t until sin entered the picture that death became a part of human existence. Disease, famine, hardships, and persecution are embedded into each person’s life, but for those who follow Christ, we have the promise of eternal life with Him. God is passionate about life and desires to give life abundantly. Therefore, we as Christians should be passionate about life and stand against any policy that diminishes its value.

Today, we are seeing health care facilities and medical professionals attempt to “play God” by offering physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia to patients. The advocacy for these tragic practices is increasing across the United States, with physician-assisted suicide becoming legalized in 10 states and in Washington, D.C. Assisted suicide disregards God’s original intent for the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. This topic may seem obscure to some, but it affects all of us; we don’t have to be doctors or patients with terminal diagnoses to understand the unsettling reality that people are losing their right to life.

Initiatives such as Compassion & Choices (previously the Hemlock Society) and the Death with Dignity National Center are attempting to persuade individuals that life with difficulty and disease is not a life worth living. But the hospital should be a place where you go for hope and healing, and doctors should not be forced to participate in the death of patients they’ve sworn to protect.

God’s perspective is crucial when determining our stance related to cases regarding medical rights of conscience. The Apostle Paul experienced chronic suffering, David experienced anxiety and despair, and Elisha died from an illness—yet they held fast to God. As Christians, we have a hope in Christ that shields us from the fear of dying. And we must recognize the enemy’s scheme in attacking the sanctity of human life and stand firm on our biblical foundation of truth to speak life and light and preach the Gospel to those in these life-threatening situations. Prayer must be our first defense against the spread of life-ending practices.

One of ADF’s Generational Wins is safeguarding life. Over the past three years, Alliance Defending Freedom has analyzed specific state legislation legalizing physician-assisted suicide and developed arguments against their enactment. We pray and advocate for laws and legal precedents that protect the value and dignity of each human life, no matter how vulnerable or weak. Despite discouragement and confusion created by the arguments in support of physician-assisted suicide, the believer’s hope is in Jesus Christ, the Giver of life.

Alliance Defending Freedom is committed to praying for outcomes that glorify God and honor his wonderful design for life.

Here is how you can be praying with us:

  • Pray that doctors would continue to stand in their personal and religious convictions, opposing the pressure to perform medical acts on patients that result in premature death.
  • Pray that patients would be protected from coercion and given full discretion in the course of treatment doctors are prescribing.
  • Pray that the Church would serve as a light to people who are suffering with illness and stand on the biblical worldview of life.
  • Pray that the judges hearing medical rights of conscience cases would be positively influenced by the arguments for life and uphold the right of medical professionals to protect life.
  • Pray that legislators would uphold the right to life instead of the legalization of physician-assisted suicide.
  • Pray that the American Medical Association would be protected from outside pressure to alter its Code of Ethics statement that physician-assisted suicide is “fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer.”