Doctor assisted suicides became legal in Oregon on November 4, 1997, and the first publicly announced example was on March 24, 1998 (THE OREGONIAN, 3-26-98). "Hooray for the people of Oregon," acclaimed Faye Girsh, executive director of the Hemlock Society, based in Colorado. On the other hand, said Robert Castagna, of the Oregon Catholic Conference, "This is a tragic day for Oregon and our nation." The so-called "Death With Dignity Act" does not reflect the attitude of the old saying, "Quitters never win, and winners never quit."

The assisted suicide approval is the next step following the approval of the killing, not of unborn eagles, but of unborn children, in present day non-Christian America. Our Supreme Court (Roe v. Wade) legalized abortion in 1973, saying that an unborn child is not a person, and that all laws protecting the unborn child are unconstitutional.

Accordingly, an abortionist doctor employs a vacuum tube with a sharp knife attached to it, and he sucks the baby from the womb, dicing it up into several pieces. The bleeding is profuse. The limp and lifeless body parts are then discarded.

With that description of American professional morals, we are not surprised that, since June 26, 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court holds that nothing in the constitution forbids "assisted suicides" (ibid.).

Webster defines "suicide" as

Since a suicide in law can be committed only by a "person sound in mind and capable of measuring his moral responsibility," when a person has lost his mind and kills himself, that person certainly before God is innocent, because "God is love" and "the Father of mercies" (1 John 4:8; 2 Corinthians 1:3).

On the other hand, a Christian, "sound in mind and capable of measuring his moral responsibility," who chooses unselfishly to kill himself because he has become such a care for his loved ones, has forgotten that, as long as God lets him live, his prayers "day and night" (Luke 18:7) are being heard, as he lifts up his voice (or, just his mind) in behalf of his family and of all mankind: "The prayer of the righteous has powerful results" (James 5:16).

On the other hand, a Christian, "sound in mind and capable of measuring his moral responsibility," could be simply selfish in looking for "a quick fix for suffering": "A loner isolates himself, seeking his own desire, and he sneers at all good judgment" (Proverbs 18:1), or, as the American Standard Version translates Solomon’s words, "He that separateth himself seeketh his own desire, and rageth against all sound wisdom."

Such a man loves only himself, and ignores the second greatest commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:39).

Uncaused suffering may be providential, a means God is using to mature a person spiritually. Sometimes, in God’s special providence for each Christian (1 Corinthians 10:13), he overrules the prayer, "Lead us not into trails" (Matthew 6:13), and he "works all things together for good" (Romans *28) by discipline:

Job had done nothing to deserve his boils, but, unknown to Job, God had a providential purpose in allowing Satan to afflict him with ulcers "from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head" (Job 2:7). As good as Job was, "blameless and upright" (Job 1:1), refusing his wife’s advice to "curse God and die" (Suicide?, Job 2:9-10), yet God could see in Job egotism (Job 13:2) and rebellion (Job 23:2), flashing eyes (Job 15:12), and a disposition to argue with his Maker (Job 13:3). Certainly he did not say:

Instead, self-righteousness showed itself, for he said:

However, days of suffering humbled the man, and he listened to God’s rebuke, and repented "in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6). Suicide as instant relief from his suffering was never in Job’s mind.

Also, God allowed the devil to torment Paul lest he became proud (2 Corinthians 12:7). Paul could talk in more foreign languages "than all of" the Corinthians, and to him were given many "revelations" (1 Corinthians 14:18; 2 Corinthians 12:7). But for his good, during at least the last 11 years of his life (57-68 A.D.), Paul awoke every morning in pain because of "a thorn in the flesh, an agent of Satan," given "to torment me, so that I might not be arrogant" (2 Corinthians 12:7).

Never did the idea of relief from suffering by suicide enter Paul’s mind. Instead, he prayed for relief, only to be told that prayer would not avail, for his was a terminal affliction (2 Corinthians 12:9). Humbly he adjusted to the Lord’s discipline, writing: