Gospel Prism

This has been a very different week to say the least. I heard from my mom my uncle died on Tuesday. I had to immediately cancel most of my plans this week, but I knew that would happen some time since my uncle seemed to be on the verge of death. But perhaps what has been on mine and Shua’s heart this whole week was the fact that my aunt and cousins “pulled the plug� on my uncle. Now, I haven’t sat down and studied the biblical implications of what this has meant. But I will say this, my heart is troubled by this action for a few reasons:

1. The decision to end a life, regardless of the context, is such a great and weighty matter that it must be done with deep prayer and wrestling.
2. There must be an absolute assurance that no other motivating factor is involved other than the patient’s strongest desires and well-being. But the human heart is deceitful beyond cure (Jeremiah 17:9), and so even what might seem like right motives can mask the dark heart.
3. If a person “pulls the plug,� if the family really cares for the sick person, there will still be a sense of doubt and guilt because no matter what the family wants to believe, the life has been ended due to a direct result of the family’s intervention.

There is so much to say here, that I believe I will need to save my thoughts for when I will need to explore this exegetically and theologically. But sad to say, too often people pull the plug because it is more convenient for the caring family to do so, whether they want to admit it or not. And if convenience is the primary reason to pull the plug, then I would say that in the Lord’s eyes, that is murder. But only the Lord knows the heart truly.

Also, I saw the hospital apply some hard pressure to the family to pull the plug. The doctors said to them, “If you do not let us remove the respirator, you are selfish because he’s in pain.� But when I looked at him, he didn’t seem to be in pain. They had not done a CAT scan to see whether he truly was in pain. They assumed he was in pain. My uncle was costing that hospital perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars. They probably needed that ICU room. And with such pressure from the doctors, I believe that my aunt and cousins were pressured into making a quicker decision. At the very least, the pressure from the doctors, didn’t make it easy for them to keep him on the respirator.

Also, if you can imagine it, there was false teaching and theology involved here. It seemed a pastor that my uncle’s family knew also called my aunt. He had just come out of a coma as well after being in grave condition. And it was a miracle that he was alive. Well, he told my aunt that she should pull the plug on my uncle for two reasons: 1) when he was on the plug, he wanted to be off it and 2) the ‘Lord’ told him that he was supposed to take over my uncle’s ministry. I can hear Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 4:1-2: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.� If you can imagine, this actually affected my aunt’s decision-making process as well.

There are so many other parts to this story that I can’t describe here. But on Tuesday, my aunt and cousins ‘pulled the plug’ on my uncle and he died and hour later. For some reason, prior to his death, I felt as though ‘pulling the plug’ was a viable option. But after the fact, I feel a bit sick to my stomach thinking about what was done. And now both Shua and I know that we would never do so to one another, no matter the inconvenience, the cost, the anguish. People say that we need to “relieve the suffering.� But as a Christian, we do not live to “relieve suffering.� We worship a God who suffered, bled, and died for us. Also, in suffering (Romans 5:1-5), we understand the great hope given to us in light of the cross. The Bible never says that we should end life so a person would not suffer.

Another common argument for pulling the plug is that a person will be in a better place. Well, if that were the case, if it was all about bringing the person to a better place, then to be intentionally ludicrous to make a point, we should kill every Christian now because they will be in a better place. Certainly, we will be held accountable for this life, even if we are bound for Paradise.

I truly believe my uncle is in a better place, and for him, it is far better. But for those of us who made the decision to put him there, I wonder if there won’t be an accounting before the Lord one day for such a decision. I wonder…