"WHEN SUICIDE IS LEGAL AND THE MONEY RUNS OUT - AN EVIL AND UNNECESSARY 'CHOICE'" - by John Stonestreet and Roberto Rivera, Breakpoint.org, September 23, 2019; http://www.breakpoint.org/2019/09/breakpoint-when-suicide-is-legal-and-the-money-runs-out/ [AS I SEE IT: This article ends by asking a very good question. After over 45 years of legalized abortion, ie. legalized murder of unborn children, it still is hard to pin down just HOW Churches and believers who call themselves "pro-life' truly show evidence of BEING pro-life. Now, just over the horizon there is the challenge that legalized euthanasia, ie. the surrender of the ill to legalized murder. Yes, just how will the Church respond before the Supreme Court finds a way to write this "right" as well into the Constitution? A truly sobering question. (P.S. - It's not like this fight was not predicted those 45 years ago when Roe became the law of the land.) - Stan]
Six years ago, Sean Tagert of British Columbia was diagnosed with ALS, better known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.” An ALS diagnosis is essentially a death sentence. There is no known cure. People with ALS eventually lose control over most of the muscles in their bodies–including the ones that enable them to breathe. Despite his grim diagnosis, Tagert decided to live as long as he could for the sake of his son, who was six-years old at the time. For five years, he advocated on behalf of ALS patients and became a symbol of someone who refused to give up.
Then, last month, Tagert informed his friends he had decided to opt for physician-assisted suicide under Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying law. Why? Tagert didn’t give up because he believed the fight for life was no longer worth it. He gave up because those who could have helped him refused.
Totally-paralyzed and requiring a ventilator to breathe, Tagert required full-time care in order to live at home with his son. But government medical officials would only provide 20 hours of care a day. Thus, he could only get ‘round-the-clock care by moving to a group facility nearly five hours away from his home, and his son. Tagert appealed this decision that was separating him from his boy. Officials never responded!
A Facebook post in Tagert’s honor put it this way: “The few institutional options on hand . . . would have offered vastly inferior care while separating him from his family, and likely would have hastened his death.” And so, in Tagert’s mind, physician-assisted suicide had become the least horrible option.
His death has set off shock waves throughout Canada. Dr. Leonie Herx, a palliative care specialist and opponent of Canada’s euthanasia law, is harshly calling her country to task: “We need a public outcry around peoples’ right to access care, to support them in choosing a right to life rather than just a right to death… We need to ensure [physical] needs are met before we get to a place where people are feeling like death is the only option.”
Of course, government officials first failed Tagert by making physician-assisted suicide legal in the first place. The Medical Assistance in Dying Act, like all pro-death legislation, sent a crystal-clear message that euthanasia is an acceptable alternative to palliative care. Inevitably, this will lead to decisions in which life is priced out, compared to the cost of resources. When the resources are scarce, the “right to die” will become the “duty to die.” In Tagert’s case, “scarce” was about $200 a day.
This scenario, as the disability-rights group “Not Dead Yet” has pointed out, isn’t limited to Canada. What happened in British Columbia can happen in Belgium, and in Oregon, and in New Zealand, and in Colorado, and anywhere physician-assisted suicide is legal.
In fact, the U.S. likely spends less on in-home health care services than Canada. As Pew Research has reported, “Medicaid and private insurance plans offer scant or no coverage of home visits” for patients with “serious, debilitating conditions who are not hospitalized or in hospice.”
Are we ready for this, Church? It took a couple of decades for pro-lifers to catch up on all the ways we could protect preborn life. Are we ready for the fight against legalized euthanasia? Are we ready to protect the vulnerable after birth? The Church has learned to support expectant mothers, to make apologetic arguments for when life begins, to offer ultrasound insight into the womb. What do we now need to learn about palliative care, debilitating disease, and family support? How do we help those who lack the resources to keep themselves alive? How do we get creative? Do things like medical sharing hold promise? Will we support faith-based hospices like we support pregnancy resource centers?
These are tough questions. So please, before we give up, let’s open our Bibles to Matthew 25 . . .
[italics and colored emphasis mine]
RESOURCES
"Why Some Patients Aren’t Getting Palliative Care" - Michael Ollove Pew Trusts July 10, 2017; https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2017/07/10/why-some-patients-arent-getting-palliative-care
"Canadian man receives assisted death after funding cut for in-home care" - Catholic News Agency August 16, 2019; https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/canadian-man-receives-assisted-death-after-funding-cut-for-in-home-care-65386
PRAISE GOD for the continuing recent successes againstISIS ! Pray that coalition forces will be able to fully destroy the leadership and infrastructure of ISIS .
Then, last month, Tagert informed his friends he had decided to opt for physician-assisted suicide under Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying law. Why? Tagert didn’t give up because he believed the fight for life was no longer worth it. He gave up because those who could have helped him refused.
Totally-paralyzed and requiring a ventilator to breathe, Tagert required full-time care in order to live at home with his son. But government medical officials would only provide 20 hours of care a day. Thus, he could only get ‘round-the-clock care by moving to a group facility nearly five hours away from his home, and his son. Tagert appealed this decision that was separating him from his boy. Officials never responded!
A Facebook post in Tagert’s honor put it this way: “The few institutional options on hand . . . would have offered vastly inferior care while separating him from his family, and likely would have hastened his death.” And so, in Tagert’s mind, physician-assisted suicide had become the least horrible option.
His death has set off shock waves throughout Canada. Dr. Leonie Herx, a palliative care specialist and opponent of Canada’s euthanasia law, is harshly calling her country to task: “We need a public outcry around peoples’ right to access care, to support them in choosing a right to life rather than just a right to death… We need to ensure [physical] needs are met before we get to a place where people are feeling like death is the only option.”
Of course, government officials first failed Tagert by making physician-assisted suicide legal in the first place. The Medical Assistance in Dying Act, like all pro-death legislation, sent a crystal-clear message that euthanasia is an acceptable alternative to palliative care. Inevitably, this will lead to decisions in which life is priced out, compared to the cost of resources. When the resources are scarce, the “right to die” will become the “duty to die.” In Tagert’s case, “scarce” was about $200 a day.
This scenario, as the disability-rights group “Not Dead Yet” has pointed out, isn’t limited to Canada. What happened in British Columbia can happen in Belgium, and in Oregon, and in New Zealand, and in Colorado, and anywhere physician-assisted suicide is legal.
In fact, the U.S. likely spends less on in-home health care services than Canada. As Pew Research has reported, “Medicaid and private insurance plans offer scant or no coverage of home visits” for patients with “serious, debilitating conditions who are not hospitalized or in hospice.”
Are we ready for this, Church? It took a couple of decades for pro-lifers to catch up on all the ways we could protect preborn life. Are we ready for the fight against legalized euthanasia? Are we ready to protect the vulnerable after birth? The Church has learned to support expectant mothers, to make apologetic arguments for when life begins, to offer ultrasound insight into the womb. What do we now need to learn about palliative care, debilitating disease, and family support? How do we help those who lack the resources to keep themselves alive? How do we get creative? Do things like medical sharing hold promise? Will we support faith-based hospices like we support pregnancy resource centers?
These are tough questions. So please, before we give up, let’s open our Bibles to Matthew 25 . . .
[italics and colored emphasis mine]
RESOURCES
"Why Some Patients Aren’t Getting Palliative Care" - Michael Ollove Pew Trusts July 10, 2017; https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2017/07/10/why-some-patients-arent-getting-palliative-care
"Canadian man receives assisted death after funding cut for in-home care" - Catholic News Agency August 16, 2019; https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/canadian-man-receives-assisted-death-after-funding-cut-for-in-home-care-65386
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PRAYER MATTERS:
"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against
the disorder of the world. - Karl Barth
the disorder of the world. - Karl Barth
"Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting/resting in His love and grace to accomplish His perfect will in His perfect time and for His greatest glory. Intercession is one of the great privileges AND responsibilities for EVERY believer."- Stan
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“INTERCESSORS ARE THE RUDDER” – A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT - Wanda Alger, June 28th, 2017; https://www.getamericapraying.com/blog/I was recently given a word by my good friend, Bill Yount. His word greatly encouraged me as an intercessor. Working for Intercessors for America
James 3:4 talks about the power of a small rudder to steer a large ship. In this scripture about the power of our tongue, consider the power of prophetic intercession! In the Forerunner Commentary on this verse we read, “…rudders manipulate the course of immense ocean vessels with a slight movement of a pilot’s hand. Since it is underwater and aft, the rudder of a ship does its work UNSEEN. A passenger is ignorant of its movements most of the time. Yet, when it is in proper working order, the rudder holds more power over the ship than the wind. The wind will blow, toss, even destroy the ship’s rigging, but the rudder guides the ship exactly where it directs.”
This is God’s promise to the intercessors in this hour of national turbulence. Don’t stop praying! Your prayers have great power to turn the ship! Continue praying, interceding, and discerning the workings and movements of the Holy Spirit, being faithful to God’s commands. As we come together to declare God’s faithfulness, this nation will, once again, head in the direction that God intends. Don’t give up and don’t give in. Regardless of the winds of adversity and the fires of the enemy, God’s people have a power that cannot be matched. Let us join in faith and continue to pray and speak of God’s faithfulness in order to bring God’s people and this nation into the fullness of God’s plans. Note this additional encouragement from God’s word:
Colossians 2:15 – “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (ESV).
Psalm 33:8-11 – “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. The Lord foils the plans of the nations; He thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.”
Wanda Alger, IFA Field Correspondent
PRAY FOR AMERICA : THANK GOD for His many blessings on America AMERICA America "but instead "God be merciful towards America
PRAY FOR OUR LEADERS: 1) Pray for President Trump and his advisers, that they would select Godly leaders at the federal level who will be accountable to do an excellent job (or be fired!) ; that he would seek God's wisdom and be enabled to lead our country effectively in the years ahead; and 2) Pray our leaders at every level of government will Spirit-filled, leading us with Godly wisdom and integrity; that they will only pass legislation and enact policies that will benefit Americans today as well as future generations and NOT do any lasting harm.
SUPREME COURT: PRAY that the justices will only hand down decisions that are Constitutionally sound and in the best interests of our country now and for future generations.
World-Wide Prayer Requests:
PRAISE GOD for the continuing recent successes against
*For believers in Syria
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Praying Through the Open Doors World Watch List for persecuted believers:https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar/
Monthly Focus | NORTH KOREA-In North Korea (No. 1 for 18 consecutive years on theWorld Watch List), parents can’t risk telling their children about their faith. Some wait until their children are old enough; others never feel that freedom. This month, join us in praying for secret believers in North Korea.
October 12 | INDIA - Christians say the outcome of spring political elections could result in increased persecution. Our ministry partners ask: “Please pray for our government. Pray that they lead wisely.”
*Names changed to protect identities
*Names changed to protect identities
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