What hope is there other than life?
From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham
Q: My mother has instructed me that she doesn’t want life-saving measures taken to prolong her life should she be taken by a long-term illness. Is this right? Shouldn’t we do everything to keep living? What hope is there other than life? – L.D.
A: Many people will have to face the issue of living on “borrowed time.” Allowing the natural process of death to run its course is not necessarily wrong when life can only be sustained by extreme medical measures. There is a difference between the prolongation of life and the postponement of death.
The Bible says that there’s “a time to be born, and a time to die” (Ecclesiastes 3:2, NKJV). Many have confused the right to die with the subject of euthanasia (the deliberate killing of those who are suffering). They are not the same thing.
The “right to die” is defined as the individual’s right to decide if unusual or “heroic” measures should be taken, normally involving expensive or mechanical means of life support, to prolong life in cases where death is almost certainly inevitable. Life is sacred and given to us by God; for that reason, we must never condone the deliberate, unnatural taking of life.
Standing at the bedside of someone who has life-sustaining tubes intruding into many parts of the anatomy, we can understand how humane medical treatment could be viewed as inhumane. When the treatment of humans becomes, for all appearances, inhuman, most of us want the right to refuse such treatment. We take comfort in Job 12:10 (NKJV): “In whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?” The answer is in God alone, for our very breath comes from Him.
For the Christian, death can be faced realistically and with victory, because believers in Jesus Christ know “that neither death nor life … shall be able to separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:38–39).
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(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)
©2025 Billy Graham Literary Trust. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(c)2025 BILLY GRAHAM DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
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