A dangerous narrative on death

Cancer patient Brittany Maynard not only chose to end her life using doctor-prescribed medication, but she also intentionally took on the role of champion for assisted suicide. The Vatican criticized her death last Saturday as an undignified “absurdity,” while the National Right to Life Committee said it had no criticism for Maynard, but plenty of criticism for the advocacy group that maintains a website in her honor and uses it to solicit contributions.

John Stonestreet of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview said Maynard’s story—that of a vibrant, intelligent young woman who could clearly articulate her losses and her decision—“plays in our culture where we think we should be able to choose anything we want from our cereals to our gender.”

While media coverage of Maynard’s death was appropriately sympathetic to her suffering, it also extended a dangerous cultural narrative.

“There’s an illusion in our culture and a thought that suffering is the counter-opposite of dignity, and you can’t suffer with dignity,” Stonestreet said. He added that Christians believe that heroic dignity is often exhibited “because of suffering, not around it,” and pointed out that was especially true in the story of Jesus, who “comes through suffering to bring life.”

Listen to my complete conversation with Stonestreet about the death with dignity movement on the “Culture Friday” segment of The World and Everything In It, where we also talk about why laws against recreational marijuana are necessary.