The Right to Choose
Sunday 8th December 2024
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27 (NIV)
The Right to Choose
It seems obvious that we should have the right to choose. We choose which chocolate bar to buy, or we choose not to buy one at all. We choose which sports to watch, or we choose to watch none at all. We choose what style of clothes to wear, and what kind of music to listen to. We choose where to live, what car to drive (although there are some limitations here), and so on and so on.
Why, then, should there be any objection to giving people the right to choose when it comes to one of the most important decisions imaginable, and that is when and how to end one’s own life? How cruel we must be to continue to withhold that right.
That is what was being debated in Parliament a week ago when MPs were considering a bill to permit adults who are terminally ill, with less than six months to live, and in unrelievable pain, to be assisted in ending their own lives if they wish. What could possibly be wrong with giving them the choice to end their suffering, some of which is truly horrible? The bill was duly passed, which means it will go on to the next stage of discussion.
In his Speak Life podcast Glen Scrivener points out that the debate came down to one between two principles: the right to choose and the sanctity of life. At one level, it is surprising that the UK Parliament has taken so long to agree such a bill. After all, since the 1960s we have followed the slogan ‘my body, my choice.’ And more recently we have honoured the individual’s right to be married to someone of the same sex if they choose, and more recently still to define their own gender. So choosing when you die seems a logical next step along the same road of having the right to choose.
The right to choose is an expression of autonomy (literally ‘self-law’), where I decide for myself what I think is best for me, and I effectively become a law to myself, which of course is very tempting. It is, though, from a biblical point of view, absolutely disastrous – as Adam and Eve discovered to their cost when they ate the forbidden fruit. We are not autonomous beings. We are not designed to make our own laws. We are created beings, wonderfully made in the image of God, male and female. And that is what makes human life sacred, that every single human being, without exception, is made in God’s image.
Prayer
Lord, thank you that I am “fearfully and wonderfully made,” along with every other person I will ever meet. Help me to believe that about myself, and to believe it about them as well. Amen.
Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)