{"id":39567,"date":"2017-11-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/14-year-old-decides-against-assisted-suicide\/"},"modified":"2017-11-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-06T00:00:00","slug":"14-year-old-decides-against-assisted-suicide","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/14-year-old-decides-against-assisted-suicide\/","title":{"rendered":"14-Year-Old Decides Against Assisted Suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An article from <em class=\"citation\">First Things<\/em> relates the story of Valentina Maureira, a fourteen-year old from Chile who suffered from cystic fibrosis, and desperately wanted to take her own life. She even made a YouTube video begging her government to legalize assisted suicide. Valentina admitted that the idea to end her life began after she heard about the case of Brittany Maynard, the twenty-nine-year-old woman who campaigned for the legalization of assisted suicide before ending her own life.<\/p>\n\n<p>Maureira did not have access to assisted suicide, because it was illegal in Chile and she was a minor. Good thing. She changed her mind after receiving first a visit from Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, a trained pediatrician. Valentina&#39;s father Fredy Maureira said his daughter especially was moved by a visit from an Argentine family whose children have been stricken by the incurable respiratory illness. He said she also was given hope by meeting a patient who has survived beyond age 20.<\/p>\n\n<p>Before she died from the disease (not assisted suicide) she told the <em class=\"citation\">El Mercurio<\/em> newspaper that &quot;there are people who have led me to change my way of thinking.&quot; Her father complained that the media were only interested in her story when she wanted to die.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3621,3726,3737,3762,3894,4167,4168,4370,4442,4520,4584,4697,5103,5105],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-39567","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-circumstances","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-death","tax_ctp_tags-depravity","tax_ctp_tags-euthanasia","tax_ctp_tags-hope","tax_ctp_tags-hopelessness","tax_ctp_tags-life-death","tax_ctp_tags-meaning-of-life","tax_ctp_tags-national-sanctity-of-life-day","tax_ctp_tags-pain","tax_ctp_tags-preparation-for-death","tax_ctp_tags-suffering","tax_ctp_tags-suicide"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>14-Year-Old Decides Against Assisted Suicide - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/14-year-old-decides-against-assisted-suicide\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"14-Year-Old Decides Against Assisted Suicide - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An article from First Things relates the story of Valentina Maureira, a fourteen-year old from Chile who suffered from cystic fibrosis, and desperately wanted to take her own life. She even made a YouTube video begging her government to legalize assisted suicide. 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