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That quote is an ideological and "rhetorical sideshow" in its own right. Nevertheless, it inadvertently makes the same point that the Canadian newspaper Christian Week made less colorfully: Secular ethics has hit a dead end. Shun utilitarian thinking. Only revealed ethics can address this issue safely.

What are we to make of this challenge? We are not are own. We belong to each other and to God, both by creation and redemption. We are bought with a price, to use St. Paul's words. Life is thus for us a matter of stewardship rather than ownership. And the lives entrusted to us are to be loved and nurtured until the Master takes them from us.

7. The battle continues in the United States. In Oregon, where PAS has been legalized, a fundraising letter for the Compassion in Dying Federation declares, "We have expanded our mission to include not only terminally ill individuals, but also persons with incurable illnesses which will eventually lead to a terminal diagnosis." That definition, the National Post editorial page points out, "covers myriad conditions, including early-stage cancer and heart disease." The federation's director of legal affairs even claims that Oregon's 15-day waiting period is "overly restrictive" and "unduly burdensome."

In the Senate, Majority Whip Don Nickles (R-Okla.) has sponsored the Pain Relief Promotion Act. This bill, which was backed by the American Medical Association, would protect and promote the appropriate use of pain medication, but it would also bar physicians from using federally controlled substances to aid a suicide. In effect, it would encourage physicians to prescribe generously for pain, while it would also void Oregon's maverick pas law. In an unforeseen upset, liberal senators won a public-relations campaign and defeated Nickles's efforts to attach his provisions to the final spending bill of 2000.

Ron Wyden (D-Oreg.) said he expects President Bush to instruct his new attorney general to reinterpret the Controlled Substances Act to invalidate the Oregon law. For his part, Bush has said he would sign a version of the Nickles bill. Let us hope he does both. But ultimately, it is up to all who see themselves as stewards of a divine gift to model their belief in compassionate care for the dying and the discouraged.

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Recently, the Dutch parliament approved euthanasia with a bill legalizing mercy killings and doctor-assisted suicide. The New York Times and the BBC covered this decision closely.

For other recent news and opinion pieces on euthanasia, see WorldNews.com or Yahoo's full coverage area.

Books and Culture took on the euphemisms that surround euthanasia in "The Subjunctive that Killed Hugh Finn | Our language about what a patient 'would' want turns sympathy into empathy, pity into murder."

Previous Christianity Today coverage of euthanasia includes:

Severe Mercy in Oregon | How two dying patients dealt with a new right: When to die. (June 14, 1999)

Hospice Care Hijacked? | A bottom-line, cost-efficient mentality obscures the movement's original Christian vision. (March 2, 1998)

What Really Died in Oregon | The state's voter-approved suicide law represents more than an extreme belief in personal autonomy. (January 12, 1998)

'Right to Die' Debate Returns to States | (August 11, 1997)

Deadly Compassion | Some support physician-assisted suicide out of fear of a lonely, pain-filled death. Here are four professionals who are making the dying a part of the church's ministry. (June 16, 1997)

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February 5 2001, Vol. 45, No. 2