Murdering the sick in Illinois
Man is made in the image of God and bears His likeness. We may not unjustly terminate the life of an innocent person.
I have some bad news. You are terminally ill. You are going to die. Hopefully not soon, but your death is unavoidable. This is because every human being who has ever lived has died or will die. You are not the exception to that rule. If disease, violence, or an accident does not get you, old age is undefeated. So given the inevitability of death, if you are in a great deal of pain or deeply depressed, why not just avoid the suffering and kill yourself?
Christians have understood why the answer is "no" for all of church history: Man is made in the image of God and bears His likeness. We may not unjustly terminate the life of an innocent person. In Exodus 21:28-29, we see the death penalty applies to someone who causes death by negligence. Deuteronomy 22:8 warns people to install safety features on their roof to prevent accidental death. Scripture declares in 1 Corinthians 15:19-26 that death is an enemy and will be destroyed.
This is the appropriate context for Christians to think about the horrific new law in Illinois that allows doctors to murder their own patients. (See here and here and here and here for more.) Illinois Democrats claim that murdering terminally ill people will be very limited and strictly regulated. Will that remain the case? It has not in Canada, where one of every 20 deaths is from "doctors" murdering their own patients. There are plenty of horror stories. An elderly woman allowed herself to be murdered to avoid more COVID-19 isolation. Of course, doctors are also not always right about how long someone has to live.
(Note there is a difference between active, intentional killing and refusing "heroic measures" to prolong the life of a suffering person.)
We should not ignore the role money plays in this. A huge proportion of medical costs are from the last year of life. Murdering "terminally ill" patients will save the state of Illinois a significant amount of money and ease pressure on the state budget. There will be pressure on doctors to murder their patients to save money instead of caring for the sick, giving them palliative care and helping ease suffering. This will decrease trust in the medical system at a time when that trust is already strained.
In addition to being rebellion against the Sixth Commandment, assisted suicide is a rebellion against the sovereignty of God. "No, I will not be humiliated," we say in our pride. "I will decide the terms of my own death." But we do not know why God, in His infinite wisdom, has decided to preserve someone's life. It is not for us to decide whether someone can be murdered, instead of dying naturally. We are not wiser or more compassionate than the omnipotent Creator of the universe, and any policy to the contrary is sinful rebellion.