I urge you to take a few minutes to respond to the government questionnaire on the End of Life Choice Act. I have just filled it out it myself. Public consultation in the form of the survey closes 5 pm on Thursday 26 September 2024. The questionnaire can be accessed here.
The euphemistically named End of Life Choice Act was passed in 2019 and is now up for review. As part of the review process, the public are invited to answer a series of ten questions. The questions are straightforward and took me about 30 minutes to answer – I like to give full answers! But if you simply want to state your opinion, and say yes or no, filling out the questionnaire will take much less time. So why not complete it now?
In filling out the questionnaire, I found it helpful to re-acquaint myself with the issues involved. To that end, Family First have put together a webpage with information, helpful links, and opinions from a Christian point-of-view. They also list the questions you will be asked in the questionnaire and give sample answers here (use them to help form your ideas, but if you just copy them your response is likely to be discounted as a “form” response).
Reading through the material, many Christians will be concerned that the Act has had a lethal (literally) impact on many vulnerable people over the past five years. For me, it is of particular concern that 99% of those who chose to end their lives did so without any referral for psychiatric assessment. That raises serious questions as to how many of those who made decisions to end their lives did so primarily in response to an underlying mental health issue or due to a misplaced desire not to burden family or an under-resourced health system?
Having been in pastoral ministry for over thirty years, I know how precious the last few months/years of a person’s life can be. Once the shock of having received a terminal diagnosis is overcome, the time remaining becomes, in fact, a wonderful gift – both to the person concerned and to their families. It is amazing how much of value and significance can be passed on to others when we know the time is short.
In the end, only God knows the number of our days. Doctors rightly attempt to give us a realistic prognosis, but even their predictions must bow before the sovereign will of our loving and merciful Creator. My only conclusion: “my times are in your hands” (Psalm 31:15).
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