Waldron Mission Fund

 

Under the oversight of the elders of the Crossville church of Christ, PO Box 211, Crossville, TN 38557

Bulletin Brief

C. Everett Koop, M.D.

 

We must be wary of those who are too willing to end the lives of the elderly and the ill.  If we ever decide that a poor quality of life justifies ending that life, we have taken a step down a slippery slope that places all of us in danger. 

 

There is a difference between allowing nature to take its course and actively assisting death.  The call for euthanasia surfaces in our society periodically, as it is doing now under the guise of “death with dignity” or assisted suicide. 

 

Euthanasia is a concept, it seems to me, that is in direct conflict with a religious and ethical tradition in which the human race is presented with “a blessing and a curse, life and death,” and we are instructed “...therefore, to choose life.” 

 

I believe “euthanasia” lies outside the commonly held life-centered values of the West and cannot be allowed without incurring great social and personal tragedy.  This is not merely an intellectual conundrum.  This issue involves actual human beings at risk…

 

(KOOP, The Memoirs of America’s Family Doctor, M.D., Random House, 1991)

ABORTION AND

EUTHANASIA INTERNATIONAL

M.H. Tucker

 

             Today in Hong Kong, the body of an innocent child lies in a casket decked with flowers riding to the silent city of the dead.  In the same city the body of another child, equally innocent, will be placed in a plastic bag and carried to the incinerator to be burned, not to the cemetery to be buried.  In the first case the child was the victim of one of the many diseases that afflict mankind; the second was the victim of a surgeon’s instrument and a mother who did not wish to be inconvenienced by carrying her child to full term.  In short, the child was the victim of abortion.

                 With some variation, depending upon cultural differences, this will be repeated several million times each year throughout the world.  In Japan, perhaps as many as 65 million babies have been aborted since the 1940s; in America, nearly 50 million since 1973, and millions more in Europe, Russia, and Southeast Asia.

                 While abortion has social, economic, and political implications the ultimate truth must be sought in God’s word.  What does the Bible say about the unborn?

                 1)  God and human life:  All life is from God.  He “giveth to all life, breath and all things” (Acts 17:25b).  Human life is sacred because it was created in God’s image.  “So God created man in his own image: in the image of God created He him” (Genesis 1:27).

                 2)  God and the conception of a child:  While the Bible acknowledges a causal connection between sexual intercourse and conception, it also ascribes conception as an act or a gift from God.  “So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and he went in to her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son” (Ruth 4:13).

                 3)  God and the development of the unborn child:  The Bible teaches that God shapes the fetus.  “Did not He that made me in the womb make him?  And did not one fashion us in the womb?” (Job 31:15).

                 Both pre-natal and post-natal existence are described in the Bible by the word “child.”  The Greek word, brephos, is used to describe the unborn “babe” in Luke 1:41.  The same word is used to describe the Hebrew children who were slaughtered by Pharaoh.  “They cast out their young children (brephos), to the end they might not live” (Acts 7:19).  Thus, life in the mother’s womb is not merely a “blob of tissue” as the abortionists describe it, but a child in whom the Lord has an intense interest.  (How about this:  Luke 1:43-44 “And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.”  )

                 It is clear that the Bible teaches that human life exists prior to birth, but what does medical science reveal about the unborn?  The California Medical Association admits that, “human life begins at conception and is continuous whether intra– or extra-uterine until death.”  Furthermore, the First International Conference on Abortion held in 1967 and attended by authorities in medicine, law, and ethics, etc., considered the question, “When does life begin?”  They held that human life began at conception and that changes occurring from that point to “a mature adult are merely stages of development and maturation”  (J.C. Wilke, Handbook on Abortion, Hayes Publishing Co. 1975, p.10) .

                 Once a society’s conscience becomes insensitive to the sacredness of life it is only a short step to other stages of destruction of life.  Abortion is only the tip of the iceberg.  Next will come infanticide (killing of infants), then the elderly, the critically ill and the handicapped.  While preparing material for this article, a 30 minute telecast was viewed in which a doctor in Scotland, who favors infanticide, reported that the number of infants who are “allowed to die” each year in the U.S. has already reached into the thousands.  In one such case an infant with Down’s Syndrome had food and liquids withheld.  The infant lingered for 15 days before death came.  Why should anyone marvel at this?  If a child in the womb can be killed, what is so offensive about killing one in the crib?

                 Once we become desensitized to this war on handicapped infants, how long will it be until, “for their own good and the good of society,” the anti-life philosophy is extended to the elderly and the critically ill?

                 The termination of lives “devoid of value” as described above is being paraded under the name “euthanasia.”  This word is of Greek origin and literally means “good death.”  “Death with dignity” is another euphemism which is designed to make the anti-life philosophy more palatable.  Death with dignity — a good death — is a universal desire and, when properly understood, is acceptable to Christians.  We favor allowing the terminally ill to die without artificially prolonging the dying process.  However, we agree with this statement:  “Good death has been prostituted to mean the right to administer death (kill) to those whose lives do not measure up to the standard others have set.”

                 Christians cannot fold their hands and say, “Personally, I’m opposed to abortion and euthanasia, but I’ll not become involved in the issue.”  A Christian’s obligation in this matter is twofold.  We are admonished, “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness…”  That is our first duty.  But read further: “...but rather reprove them”  (Ephesians 5:11).

 

Soldiers of Christ arise:

And put your armor on!!

***GREAT TOOLS IN THE FIGHT FOR LIFE***

                

The National Right To Life Organization (www.nrle.org) has since 1973 been the most powerful voice for babies in the womb.  Their monthly paper is NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE NEWS.  The annual subscription rate is $16.00, but you may purchase a gift certificate for friend or family for only $10.00 a year.  Phone them at 202-626-8828.

 

             World Video Bible School has a powerful weapon to fight abortion on demand.  It is a DVD that promotes life for the unborn.  You may buy 20 copies for $30.00 post paid. Their  phone number is 512-398-5211.

MAKING EUTHANASIA LEGAL

Jim E. Waldron

 

Oregon is the only state in the Union that allows physician assisted suicide.  It was voted into law in 1994 by 51 to 49 percent.  Lawyers and  liberal court judges have worked to protect it since it went into effect in 1997.  Since that time more than three hundred lives have been taken.  The law does not require the doctor who prescribed the poison to be present when it is injected or ingested.  In fact the so-called Death With Dignity Act applies no penalties to physicians who do not report that they have prescribed lethal drugs for the purpose of suicide.  This system of great harm to infirmed parents, critically ill wives, husbands or children creates a callousness in the healthy that is heinous.  (To research this subject go to Google and type in www.lifeissues.org/euthanasia/oregon_law.htm).

 

Thank God the Hemlock Society (which promoted physicians assisting people to kill themselves) got so much bad publicity it                                     went out of business on June 13, 2003.  However, in 2005 two organizations, “Compassion in Dying” and “End-of-Life Choices” (formerly The Hemlock Society) combined to carry on the Hemlock Society’s work. 

 

One of their stated goals is to “pass Oregon-style-aid-in-dying legislation  throughout the United States…” (Google:  Hemlock Society)

 

For 200 years this nation, its doctors and its courts upheld the sanctity of the Hippocratic Oath, which reads in part:

We thank God that most doctors in the land still honor this oath, but too many who are supposed to be healers and givers of life have become like hypocrites that slaughter unborn babies like they were so much vermin or (in Oregon) give poison to others.

 

 

 

I will follow that method of treatment which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous.  I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; furthermore, I will not give to a woman an instrument to produce abortion (Hippocrates—460? - 377? BC).”

(World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. H under Hippocrates

IS THERE A UNIVERSAL CODE OF ETHICS?

Jim E. Waldron

 

The article inside entitled Abortion & Euthanasia by M. H. Tucker, comes from the book named above.  Brother Tucker and I served together as teachers in the East Tennessee School of Preaching and Missions at Knoxville from 1975 till 1978.  Laura and I and two of our children moved to Hong Kong in 1979 (under the oversight of the elders at West Nashville Heights), to begin a Bible training school to train native Christians to reach the Chinese.  Brother Tucker and his wife, Betty, came over in 1981 to fill in for us while we were on leave in the U.S. Later the two of them served there for five years.  When they returned to the States they settled in Linden, TN, where they had lived in their youth.  Brother Tucker preached for the Upper Sinking Church in Hickman County near Centerville, TN.  Both have now gone on to be with Christ, which “is far better” (Phil. 1:21-23).  Both were dear friends and fellow servants of Jesus our Lord.  Concerning M. H. himself, he was one of the most godly, pious and courageous preachers I have known.  Even today I would that he could come over to Asia to help us in our Bible schools.

 

Concerning the book Is There A Universal Code of Ethics, it is made up of twenty-one chapters on subjects of morals, ethics and right conduct.  It was written by 14 writers on such diverse subjects as The Gospel and Culture, What Is Marriage, Current Errors on Marriage and Divorce, Pornography, Modesty of Dress, Gambling, Bribery, Booze, Witchcraft, Applied Evolution and Ethics, Humanistic Ethics, Situation Ethics, Capital Punishment, The Christian and Government and more.  There are questions after each chapter for class study suitable for teens or adults.

 

You may have a personal copy or enough for your class.  Had a brother phone from South Texas, said I need 50 of those books for my adult class.  We do not charge, but do appreciate contributions to our literature fund.

 

Order from:

Waldron Missions

P.O. Box 123

Dunlap, TN  37327