Medically Assisted Suicide in a Church

Hank Unplugged: Essential Christian Conversations

The Christian Research Institute

Education, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture

5 • 791 Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2022

⏱️ 6 minutes

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Summary

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, reflects on a medically assisted suicide that took place in the sanctuary of a church. Although the medically assisted suicide of Betty Sanguin was reportedly “unanimously approved by the church’s leadership team,” suicide is the murder of oneself. In Christian theology the timing and terms of death are the province of God alone (Deuteronomy 32:39). As such, a doctor is never permitted to usurp the prerogative of deity. Hastening death based on subjective judgments concerning one’s quality of life is a violation of Scripture (cf. Genesis 9:6; Exodus 20:13). While passive euthanasia is morally permissible in that it allows the process of dying to run its natural course, active euthanasia is morally prohibited because it directly involves the taking of human life. Permitting voluntary active euthanasia opens the door to the greater evil of non–voluntary euthanasia.

See Emily Standfield, “Manitoba’s First Medically Assisted Death in a Church Was an ‘Intimate’ Ceremony,” Broadview, April 29, 2022, https://broadview.org/medically-assisted-death-church/.

For further study, see Hank Hanegraaff, “Is Euthanasia Ever Permissible?” https://www.equip.org/bible_answers/is-euthanasia-ever-permissible/; also J. P. Moreland, “The Euthanasia Debate,” parts 1 & 2, https://www.equip.org/PDF/DE197-1.pdf and https://www.equip.org/PDF/DE197-2.pdf.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Hank Hennigraph, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Instrument
0:18.0	broadcast with another Hank unplugged short.
0:21.7	This morning I read the story of Betty Senguin.
0:26.1	Betty was Manitoba Canada's first medically assisted death,
0:31.1	a death that took place in a church,
0:34.1	the Churchill Park United Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
0:40.3	Churchill Park United's leadership team actually made history by unanimously proving
0:48.3	Betty's request for her medically assisted death to take place in the sanctuary of their church.
0:56.0	Gives new meaning to sanctuary.
0:58.7	Reverend Don Rolke went so far as to offer a blessing over the sanctuary suicide.
1:06.7	Pastor Don described Betty as having a growing, changing spirituality as a person grappling with her faith.
1:15.7	And what she said she finds hard to describe to critics is the sense of rightness and the overwhelming presence of spirit during the ceremony.
1:32.8	In other words, during Betty's medically assisted suicide.
1:41.6	One of Betty's daughters called the sanctuary suicide the most beautiful and humane and compassionate way to die. Suicide is, of course, the murder of oneself.
1:49.0	And as such, well, it's a direct violation of the Sixth Commandment.
1:55.0	You shall not murder.
1:59.0	Moreover, it's a direct attack on the sovereignty of the very one who knit us together in our mother's wounds.
2:07.6	For pastors such as Reverend Don Rolke,
2:12.6	Mercy murders are a step into the light.
2:16.6	From a Christian perspective, such horrors have historically
2:19.5	been regarded as a step into darkness. Why? Well, because in historic Christianity, the
2:29.3	timing and terms of death are the prophets of God alone.
	...

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