Christians have, for 2000 years, recognized Scripture as the final authority in all matters of controversy (1) and have appealed to its authority with the same words which their master frequently used when He taught His disciples: “It is written …”(2). Our own Reformed tradition has confessed through the centuries that the Bible is our only infallible rule of faith and practice (3). 

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​Scripture teaches that human beings are the crown of God’s creation (4) and that the murder of a human being is a great wickedness before our Heavenly Father because each man and woman has been made in His image (5). The sixth commandment condemns not only the directly intended taking of human life, whether our own or another’s (6), but also the “neglecting or withdrawing the lawful and necessary means of preservation of life" (7).

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​Today, there are mounting pressures upon medical professionals, pastors, families, and individuals to hasten the death of those under their care or authority. Such hastening sometimes takes the form of direct action, such as a lethal injection. It may also take a passive form with neglect or withdrawal of the necessary means of preservation of life. Such means include medical treatment, both extraordinary and ordinary. But they also include basic provisions, normally understood as care: warmth, cleanliness, food, water, and love.

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Christians must distinguish between “treatment” and “care”

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 In light of the truth that all men and women are made in God’s image, it is a violation to withdraw medical treatment when it is necessary for the patient’s survival.  Exceptions should only be made with sound judgment when death is imminent and inevitable, and when continuing such treatment poses a grave risk or imposes a burden on the patient more than it would alleviate.

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Loving care for all members of the human community is a fundamental Christian teaching and an obligation of Christian discipleship (8). Therefore, it ought never to be withheld. This includes providing liquids and nutrition through spoon-feeding, or tubes where the patient is unable to take them by another manner.

Withholding such necessary means for the preservation of life must, therefore, stand under Scripture’s condemnation (9), even in the case of those who are perpetually comatose.

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Christians should act to alleviate suffering, but not at any cost.

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Christians should also ensure that members of the human community are upheld with the warmth and love of human contact. Christians follow their Master in humbly serving those who suffer and acting to alleviate their suffering. We recognize, however, that suffering is not to be avoided at any cost (10), especially if the cost involves either the caregiver or the patient breaking the sixth commandment. Scripture teaches that affliction often produces spiritual growth and holiness (11). Such spiritual growth is far more valuable in God’s eternal economy than those commodities so often mentioned by proponents of “quality of life” ethics, such as self-determination and autonomy (12).

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​People who asked to be killed, to be assisted in suicide, or have actions taken which will hasten their death frequently do so out of a misguided desire not to burden others. Regrettably, they are often pressured in this direction by talk of “quality of life” and “death with dignity” (13). Such individuals, though, are best helped by a simple, warm embrace, and other visible demonstrations of our love and affection for them. We need to reassure them by expressing our desire that they live here with us until God Himself, in His sovereign will (14), intervenes to take them, those who belong to Him, to live in His house forever (15). Jesus warned we would be judged on the basis of our ministry to “the least of these, my brother” (16). Even more weighty is our responsibility when “the least of these” are our own family members (17), especially our mothers and fathers (18).

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A natural death in Christ is a good death

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We urge all followers of the Lord Jesus Christ to approach death with the recognition that a natural death of a man or woman, boy or girl, who is “in Christ” is a “good death” (19). Although for Christians “to die is gain” (20), death itself will never cease being our “last enemy” (21). Furthermore, for those who don’t believe, death is the terrible moment for “after this [comes the] judgment” (22).

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Yet, as followers of Jesus Christ, we cling to our hope that the Holy Spirit has given us a lively faith in our precious Lord, and that through His blood, our sins will be forgiven, and we will be welcomed into His glorious presence where there “is fullness of joy, [and]… pleasures, forevermore” (23).

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Endnotes

1. Matt 22:23-33; Acts 17:11; 2 Tim 3:14-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21

2. Matt 4:4, 6, 7, 10; Luke 19:46; Mark 7:6

3. Westminster Confession of Faith 1:2; Westminster Larger Catechism Q&A 3; Second Helvetic Confession, Ch. 1, 2

4. Psalm 8:5; Matthew 6:26; 12:12

5. Genesis 1:27; Gen 9:6

6. Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 105-106; Westminster Larger Catechism Q&A 135

7. Westminster Larger Catechism Q&A 136; Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 107

   8. 1 Timothy 5:4-8; James 1:27; Matthew 25:31-46; James 2:14-17.

   9. Ex 20:13; Matt 25:42-43; James 2:15-16

​  10. James 5:10-11; Isaiah 53; Matthew 27:34; Romans 8:17-18; Philippians 3:10

​  11. Romans 5:3–5; Colossians 1:24

  12. Hebrews 5:8; James 5:10; 1 Peter 4:1, 12–16

  13. Job 2:9

  14. Deuteronomy 31:14; Job 14:5; Luke 2:26-32; James 4:13-14

  15. Luke 23:43; John 14:1-6; 2 Corinthians 5:6-8

  16. Matthew 25:31-46

  17. 1 Timothy 5:8

  18. Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16; Ephesians 6:2

  19. Ps 116:15; Romans 8:38-39; 2 Cor 4:16-18; 5:8-9

  20. Philippians 1:21

  21. 1 Corinthians 15:25-26; 1 Thes 4:16

  22. Romans 14:10; Hebrews 9:27

  23. Ps 16:11

(Adopted May 1991, Revised April 2025)

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