The World and Everything in It: March 26, 2026

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Hospice chaplains grapple with states expanding assisted suicide.

FAIRCHILD: My belief is that the Lord knows the day and the moment. It’s not up to us. But that’s changing now.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Also today, TPUSA’s reach, six months after Charlie Kirk’s death.

And the First Lady, pushing for AI in the classroom.

Later: A community mourns the loss of a young soldier.

BELL: This happens everywhere else. It doesn't happen here, and when it comes home, it really hurts.

And WORLD commentator Bethel McGrew on a courageous vote for Scotland.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, March 26th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

BROWN: And I’m Myrna Brown. Good morning!

REICHARD: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Iran latest » The White House is pushing back on reports that ceasefire talks with Iran have hit a dead end. That, even as Tehran publicly dismisses the U.S. peace proposal.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt:

LEAVITT: Talks continue. They are productive, as the president said on Monday, and they continue to be.

The White House hasn’t said exactly who within Iran U.S. officials are talking to. Iran's foreign minister says it’s not him and claims his government has not engaged in negotiations

But at the same time, Iran has issued its own five-point counterproposal to the U.S. peace plan. The regime demands that no more of its leaders are killed, as well as a guarantee against further strikes against Iran or its proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah.

It also includes demands that some U.S. officials find laughable, including payment of reparations for the war, and recognition of Iran's sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.

LEAVITT:  If Iran fails to accept the reality of the current moment, if they fail to understand that they have been defeated militarily and will continue to be, president Trump will ensure they are hit harder than they have ever been hit before.

The 15-point U.S. proposal reportedly calls for sanctions relief in exchange for Iran ending its nuclear weapons program, limiting its missiles, and reopening the strait.

Mediators are reportedly pushing for in-person talks, possibly as soon as tomorrow in Pakistan.

Trump China trip » Leavitt also told White House reporters that President Trump’s planned trip to Beijing has been rescheduled after a delay due to the war in Iran.

LEAVITT:  I'm pleased to announce that President Trump's meeting and a long awaited meeting with President Xi in China will now take place in Beijing on May 14th and 15th.

And she said Trump will host Xi Jinping in Washington in a reciprocal visit later this year.

The China summit is seen as a chance to build on a fragile trade truce between the two countries.

The president had first announced the visit last year following discussions about a temporary trade agreement between the U.S. and China.

Israel latest » In Israel:

NETANYAHU: [Speaking Hebrew]

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country is expanding its security zone in southern Lebanon. He says the expansion is needed to remove the threat of anti-tank missiles fired by the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah.

Israel says Hezbollah has launched 120 rockets from the city of Tyre alone.

Eliyahu Katz lives in northern Israel. He told WORLD's Travis Kircher that long drives have become nerve wracking.

KATZ:. I'm driving down Route 6, the main highway in Israel...and suddenly there's a siren, and you're finding yourself lying in a ditch sitting over two kids praying to God that shrapnel doesn't hit you.

The Israeli military says it’s killed at least 700 Hezbollah militants in Lebanon since Operation Epic Fury began.

DHS funding » On Capitol Hill, officials from various agencies within the Department of Homeland Security painted a dire picture Wednesday before a House committee as the department's funding standoff entered its 40th day.

Acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill testified:

MCNEILL: We have already lost over 480 TSOs. This shutdown and our call-out rates have accelerated as our workforce was still reeling from the last shutdown.

She warns the situation is deteriorating fast — with some officers reportedly sleeping in their cars and selling plasma to make ends meet.

MCNEILL: At this point, newly hired officers will not be able to work on the checkpoint until well after the 2026 FIFA World Cup. This is a dire situation.

Airport security wait times at some locations have topped four and a half hours. McNeill said some small regional airports may soon have to close entirely.

In the Senate, a proposed compromise would fund most of DHS for now but leave future funding for immigration enforcement, ICE and CBP, unresolved.

But that potential deal has drawn fire from both sides. House Speaker Mike Johnson:

JOHNSON: We will not allow Democrats to hold our airports and our country hostage so they can re-implement their catastrophic deadly open borders policies and threaten the lives of our children.

But Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson fired back:

THOMPSON: Republicans have repeatedly blocked bills. Democrats offered to fund every agency before this committee today.

Many House Democrats are also cool to the Senate proposal — arguing it doesn't go far enough to limit immigration enforcement tactics.

Social media ruling » In a landmark ruling, a Los Angeles jury has ordered YouTube and Meta (the parent company of Instagram) to pay $6 million dollars to a young woman who says the platforms destroyed her mental health.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: The first of its kind verdict holds Silicon Valley responsible for social media addiction.

Jurors found both companies negligent in designing platforms that hooked the now 20-year-old woman when she was a child.

The jury also ruled Meta and Google — YouTube's parent company — knew their apps were harmful to young users, but failed to warn them. That triggered an additional $3 million dollars in punitive damages.

The jury apportioned 70% blame to Meta and 30% to YouTube & Google.

Both companies say they plan to appeal.

The plaintiff’s attorney Mark Lanier told reporters:

LANIER:  We're deeply appreciative and I do think it bodes well for the other thousands of cases that are out there.

FLAVIN: This is widely seen as a bellwether case that could open the door to many similar lawsuits. It’s already tied to roughly two thousand similar suits filed by parents and school districts nationwide.

Just one day earlier a jury in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay nearly $400 million dollars for violating the state’s Unfair Practices Act.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Afghanistan prisoner returns » American citizen Dennis Coyle is now back home in the United States after being imprisoned in Afghanistan for more than a year.

SOUND: [Coyle return]

His family cheered as he stepped off of a plane in San Antonio, Texas.

Coyle’s sister Molly Long said Wednesday:

LONG:  There's been so many people praying and supporting our family and from the bottom of our hearts. We thank everybody for this day.

The Taliban government said his release followed an appeal from his family after the country’s Supreme Court “considered his previous imprisonment sufficient.”

Authorities never specified what laws the 64 year-old academic had allegedly broken.

The Trump administration declared Afghanistan a state sponsor of wrongful detention several weeks ago.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Hospice chaplains grapple with states expanding assisted suicide. Plus, the first lady pushes artificial intelligence in the classroom.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday the 26th of March.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

First up: Christians caught in the wake of assisted suicide.

More US states are approving assisted suicide laws. That leads Christian hospice providers to question what the practice means for their work.

BROWN: Some of the largest hospice providers in the US say they won’t be directly involved.

Still, some chaplains and medical staff are left to decide whether to remove themselves from a care team. WORLD’s Lauren Canterberry has the story.

LAUREN CANTERBERRY: As a hospice chaplain, Austin Fairchild walks with patients and their families each day as they approach death.

FAIRCHILD: The work is really hard, and some days are really dark. But I’ve just seen so much beauty from a really hard moment, especially with Christians. When you see a believer look death in the face and know they’ll be with Jesus in just a few minutes, and you get to hold their hand, stand with their family in those moments … yeah, that’s been a real privilege to do.

In his role, Fairchild is not allowed to proselytize his patients. But patients may share their fears, concerns, or doubts as they near death.

FAIRCHILD: It’s not an evangelism role. If they open the door, I am fully free to share the gospel.

Though Medicaid requires chaplains to be part of the hospice staff, some patients are resistant to talking with one.

One of Fairchild’s recent patients did not want to talk about spiritual things at first. But when Fairchild asked her about her life and her family she began opening up.

FAIRCHILD: There were a lot of loose ends that she needed to tie up emotionally. She realized that she wasn’t quite ready to die.

These kinds of conversations illustrate the importance of chaplains serving people near the end of their lives. But as more states consider allowing people to take their own lives using prescribed lethal drugs, Fairchild and his colleagues worry that some people may never have those discussions.

Ten states currently permit physician assisted suicide and similar legislation is set to take effect in New York and Illinois later this year. Another 14 states are currently considering bills that would legalize medical assistance in dying, sometimes referred to as MAiD.

Fairchild works in Illinois. As his state prepares for the law to go into effect this September, he has thought about his recent patient.

FAIRCHILD: If MAiD was already available, she’s the kind of woman that would have taken it really quickly.

As a Christian, Fairchild says he struggles with how–and if–to support patients who decide to pursue assisted suicide.

Ahead of Illinois’ new law taking effect, the company Fairchild works for said that it will take a neutral stance on the practice. Staff will not actively prescribe or administer the drugs, and they won’t be required to care for a patient who has chosen to take their own life.

Three of the country’s largest hospice providers have taken this approach, saying they will not allow their employees to actively participate in a patient’s suicide but will provide palliative and bereavement care.

But Fairchild says these policies still leave questions about his role.

FAIRCHILD: Typically as a chaplain, I say that my belief is that the Lord knows the day and the moment. It’s not up to us. But that’s changing now.

Fred Ouderkerken is a hospice chaplain in California, where assisted suicide is legal.

OUDERKERKEN: From my perspective and probably the training that we have for our chaplains is that we would recuse ourselves from that once that decision was made.

Ouderkerken is also the executive director at Healthcare Chaplains Ministry Association, which trains Christian chaplains.

In most cases, Ouderkerken and other chaplains can offer advice and help people process their choices, but they never make a final decision for a patient. That’s especially important when it comes to assisted suicide.

OUDERKERKEN: We want to provide comfort and we want to provide care, but we also don’t want to give the impression or the idea that we agree with what’s taking place.

Ouderkerken’s association and other training organizations advise their chaplains to adhere to the stance their endorsing denomination or certifying agency takes on assisted suicide.

Many of those have made it clear that they take a Biblical view of life—that only God determines our first and final breath. But as hospice companies and hospitals take neutral stances on assisted suicide, Christians are still left to decide for themselves what their involvement will be.

MCFARLAND: There is a sense of moral distress in this experience, in this role. And I think it’s growing for some of us.

Carol McFarland is a hospice nurse in Washington state, which legalized assisted suicide in 2008. Some of her patients have requested assisted suicide.

Proponents of these laws often refer to them as death with dignity laws. McFarland says that term seems to suggest that a patient can only have dignity at the end of their life if they choose assisted suicide. But many of her patients still die naturally and their final minutes are no less dignified. She recalls one woman who was able to go on several trips before she passed.

MCFARLAND: She was able to die at home with her family. That was death with dignity.

Back in Illinois, Fairchild says he is grateful his patient did not have the option to take her own life. After her health took a turn, she told him she wasn’t sure where she would go after she died.

FAIRCHILD: I said, ‘do you want to know how to be ready to go to heaven?’ In that moment I was able to tell her about Jesus and we prayed together at the end.

She heard the gospel. And died the next day.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lauren Canterberry.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It:

AI in Education.

This week, First Lady Melania Trump touted greater access to high-tech tools for students. She spoke at a two-day summit with other spouses of world leaders.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: But the push comes at a time when some in education say “not so fast.” WORLD’s Harrison Watters has the story.

HARRISON WATTERS: First Lady Melania Trump walked into the East Room of the White House on Wednesday alongside a humanoid robot — a talking robot.

ROBOT: I'm figure 3, a humanoid built in the United States of America. I am grateful to be a part of this historic movement to empower children with technology in education.

The First Lady then invited representatives from 45 nations and tech leaders … to imagine how a humanoid robot named Plato could change education.

TRUMP: Plato will provide a personalized experience adaptive to the needs of each student. Plato is always patient and always available. Predictably, our children will develop deep critical thinking and independent reasoning abilities.

Melania Trump kicked off the two day Fostering our Future summit on Tuesday with panels tackling everything from AI education to online safety. Leaders touted programs for putting laptops into the hands of children and curriculum for teaching them about digital technology as early as first grade.

First Gentleman of Slovenia Aleš Musar said his country is struggling to overcome a more fundamental problem:

MUSAR: How to convert something that is seen as a tool for cheating into an educational tool.

Data from the U.S.-based group Carnegie Learning found that 3 out of 5 public school teachers in 2025 have discussed proper uses of AI with their students. But 6 in 10 report students are using AI to cheat on assignments.

White House Chief Science and Technology Officer Michael Kratsios told attendees that with AI’s growing dominance, change is unavoidable.

KRATSIOS: Every career path will use AI as a tool in some way so every child should be able to fully take advantage of AI with confidence and responsibility.

Last Friday, the White House gave its recommendations to Congress for federal AI legislation. President Trump wants lawmakers to require AI developers to secure their own power for data centers and protect the data privacy of children.

But aside from that, he wants to clear the way for developers to move fast and build things. The White House is also calling for more grants and tax breaks to go to AI in business and education.

Brad Littlejohn is Chair of the Policy Council at the newly formed Alliance for a Better Future in Washington, a pro-family, pro-tech think tank. He’s also a WORLD Opinions contributor. He’s concerned the bar for earning those grant dollars has not been set high enough.

LITTLEJOHN: They aren't being tied to proven results to like to actually these tools have been designed in a thoughtful way that honors concerns about child safety, honors concerns about data privacy, and crucially, that, I think the, I mean, the biggest issue here is, is that fosters critical thinking rather than cognitive outsourcing.

It’s not just K-12 educators worried that students are letting AI think for them. In January, the American Association of Colleges and Universities found that 9 in 10 faculty members reported concerns that AI will hurt critical thinking skills. Nearly 8 in 10 report that academic cheating is on the rise.

LITTLEJOHN: This is a totally new, untested experimental technology that we are essentially treating the next generation as lab rats for, right?

The Trump administration wants to ensure that tech companies do not use AI to track young people’s data. It also wants developers to do more to protect children from sexual exploitation online…without the government overstepping its bounds.

Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson said Tuesday:

FERGUSON: We cannot replace parents with governments. Instead, the government must come alongside parents and help them navigate the challenges of the internet and of artificial intelligence by making the best choices for their unique children.

Alliance for a Better Future CEO Janet Kelly says coming alongside parents should require more than simply informing them about the shortfalls of AI.

KELLY: Empowering parents doesn't mean putting the entire burden of protecting their kids from online harms onto the parents any more than we would expect parents to navigate kids buying cigarettes or alcohol without parental approval…we prevent that from happening by requiring age verification at the point of sale when it comes to cigarettes and alcohol, correct?

While the White House and its allies partner with tech companies to develop AI for the next generation, Kelly says parents should be vigilant. She points to recent court decisions holding Facebook developer Meta liable for mental health harms to minors.

KELLY: There are dozens of lawsuits across the country right now on the same topic. These same companies are asking us to trust them when it comes to the most consequential technology in human history, and we know better.

It’s now up to Congress to decide where to put the fences around AI in the public square and the classroom.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Harrison Watters in Washington.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s been just over six months since TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated on a college campus in Utah.

Now, even without its most recognizable voice, TPUSA says it’s continuing to grow. Growth that includes a K through 13 education division.

HERTZBERG: Since Charlie's assassination on September 10, we've had 1.6 million orders of our curriculum. We've had to digitize it because we just can't keep up with it….we're in partnership, a great partnership, with the Association of Christian Classical Schools, ACCS,

MARY REICHARD, HOST: That’s Chief Education Officer for Turning Point, Hutz Hertzberg. He’s an ordained minister whose previous roles include president of the private Christian school Charlie Kirk attended in grade school.

He says education was close to Kirk’s heart.

HERTZBERG: Because he began to see….the woke ideologies, are being baked in at a lot earlier age. Charlie saw that on the college campuses that he was going to. I saw that in the college world that I was serving in, and so he made the decision and that’s when he reached out to me to provide leadership which I agreed to do.

I recently spoke with him about the mission and health of TPUSA now. Mr. Hertzberg, good morning!

HERTZBERG: Good morning, Mary.

REICHARD: So tell me about the K-13 curriculum you’re developing.

HERTZBERG: What we've done is look at best practices in each of those grades…. we have felt like there has been a need for certain areas of curriculum. Couple of examples: we felt like it's a great opportunity to develop a constitution kit for primary grades to help them understand our constitution. How vitally important that is… We also realized that there was no really strong Christian High School economics curriculum, so we worked with a leading economist by the name of David Bahnsen. You probably know that name…

REICHARD: (laugh) Indeed I do! CNN has a documentary out that apparently claims aspects of this kind of education you’re talking about breeds Christian nationalism. Now, what do you say?

HERTZBERG: I mean, if we had 50 people on this call right now, you get 50 different answers of what Christian nationalism is….But no one in our organization flaunts that term or looks at themselves as Christian nationalists. They look at themselves as people that care about our country but we're not trying to make it a theocracy by any means that we don't believe that that's our mission. But why should not Christians be involved in culture? Why should not Christians be involved in government? You know, God’s ordained three major institutions: the church, the family and government. When it comes to government, you know, that's where Christians have excused …their lack of involvement. And we've seen the ramifications of that in our country. So Turning Point is an organization to help motivate and encourage young people, especially, to bring their faith to bear in the public sphere.

REICHARD: Well, what does conservative education look like in 2026? I understand TPUSA has several points to describe it.

HERTZBERG: Well, conservative education is really Biblical values. The values that we used to take for granted: that there is a God. That there are two sexes, male and female. The founding values of our country are values that we want our students to understand and to live out in their lives. It’s a big question, but in our world we have nine points that we explain what conservative education is, and that really is our foundation, our bedrock of what we’re trying to accomplish.

REICHARD: Yeah, and as I’m reading through them, others are: life is sacred beginning at conception; all people are created equal; marriage is between one man and one woman; God’s truth is the beginning of wisdom; the family is the epicenter of a child’s formation; the founding ideals of this country are freedom, equality, liberty, opportunity, democracy to teach, model, and preserve; and the final point: Christ-centered virtuous education is vital to renew our society.

HERTZBERG: That's the foundation for everything that we do at Turning Point education. It both attracts and it also repels people. But that’s okay. We’re very clear in terms of where we stand.

REICHARD: Mm-hmm. Now, moving on: Many worried that the organization was so closely identified with Charlie Kirk, a man by any measure at the top of his game. He cannot be replaced, so how is TPUSA going forward without him?

HERTZBERG: Well, you're right. Charlie cannot be replaced…and with that being said, Charlie's DNA is baked into the organization from his wife, Erica, who's now our CEO, to our executive leadership, which I'm on that team, to our directors, our managers, our staff. There's no wondering what we're going to do next. The only…challenge is, how can we keep up with all of the opportunities that are before us? And that, really, those opportunities have only multiplied since September 10. So the vision remains the same, and if anything, we're doubling down on Charlie's vision.

REICHARD: What is TPUSA now? A campus activism organization, a political training pipeline, a media platform, or what?

HERTZBERG: Charlie would say that, you know, we are a conservative organization that is seeking to represent, embody and help young people especially, but it's expanded far past just young people, understand the founding values of our country. And Charlie then would go on to say, for the purpose of saving Western civilization. And so that has not changed.

REICHARD: And talk about donor commitments. Have those held steady or increased or declined?

HERTZBERG: We have more donors than we've ever had before. And we thought that there would be a sympathy, you know, maybe initial sympathy, and then some of the giving would fall off. Most of that giving has continued to stay strong since September 10. So financially, the organization is doing very, very well. But we're never an organization that sits on resources. We're hiring people like crazy.

REICHARD: With the education expansion, I can understand that. How many active TPUSA chapters are there currently?

HERTZBERG: Well, if you're talking about college chapters, it's over 1000. If you're talking about high school chapters, it's 4300…. If you're talking about the number of Turning Point Education affiliates, it's approximately 2000. So just depends on what metric you're looking at. But if you're asking specifically about our chapters, Club America, which is our high school brand, and growing every day, we're adding about 10 a week. And then the college chapters. We're almost maxed out on college campuses (odd pause) but right now, we're a little bit over 1000 college chapters.

REICHARD: Are universities treating TPUSA any differently now?

HERTZBERG: Yeah, they're more open to it, with the exception of Christian universities, which is really ironic, Mary. It breaks my heart. We have Turning Point chapters on just about every one of the Ivy League campuses, on hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of state universities, private universities, but many of the Christian universities and colleges are not comfortable with having a Turning Point chapter, and it's a head scratcher. (remove next syllable uttered that I didn’t cut off)

REICHARD: If Charlie were evaluating the organization today, what do you think he’d say you’re getting right or wrong?

HERTZBERG: You know, I think Charlie would say, “Guys, keep going forward. Keep doing what you're doing. This is exactly what I had envisioned.” I think Charlie would be very pleased and very grateful that we’re continuing with the mission that God gave him.

REICHARD: Our thanks to Hutz Hertzberg for joining us today. He is Chief Education Officer for Turning Point USA.

HERTZBERG: Well, I think your questions have pretty well covered the gamut, Mary. And I appreciate them. 

MARY REICHARD, HOST: At an airport gift shop in Australia, a possum appears to have tried the oldest trick in the book:

Stand very still, and pretend not to be alive.

This possum-playing-possum found itself sitting on a shelf among stuffed toy animals for sale.

And at first glance, it fit right in. But then someone noticed a problem: Its eyes were moving.

Staff took video before the possum apparently decided the disguise wasn’t fooling anyone and wandered off.

Airport workers later removed the possum unharmed.

Now no one’s quite sure how it got into the shop or how long it had been trying out for the role of souvenir.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, March 26th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: the cost of combat.

This month, the Department of Defense identified the seventh soldier killed as part of the war in Iran: 26-year-old Staff Sergeant Benjamin Pennington.

WORLD Reporter Travis Kircher traveled to the small Kentucky town where Pennington grew up—to find out how the community is coping.

SOUND: [Car starting]

TRAVIS KIRCHER: At the Hardin County Schools Early College and Career Center, automotive instructor Tom Pitt is doing what he does best. Solving problems. There’s the student who failed to appear in shop-appropriate footwear. One SUV with bad rear brakes and another with an error code. Something to do with the fuel mixture.

PITT: So it’s calculating lean, and it’s trying to compensate for that by putting more fuel…

Pitt’s job is to take students who don’t know which end of a screwdriver to use and turn them into grease monkeys.

PITT: I couldn't be a math teacher. Won't be a math teacher, history or anything like that. It's not due to lack of ability, but I do this because of the perception of the industry.

But lately Pitt’s been dealing with the fact that there are some problems he can’t solve. Like the ongoing war with Iran…the war that just claimed the life of one of his former students: Benjamin Pennington.

PITT: I met Ben Pennington, I guess, it was 2017 he was a student in my automotive pathway class.

Pitt remembers Pennington as smart, helpful and fun to be around.

PITT: He's one of those students who, and I use this analogy a lot, like an old weed eater. Real hard to get started, but once you, once you get them started, you can't, can't, kind of turn it off...you remember folks like him.

Pennington loved airplanes and the military, so Pitt says it’s no surprise he wound up joining the Army. Pennington stayed in touch with his old automotive instructor, occasionally sending him pictures of airplanes. But a couple of weeks ago, as he was leaving church, Pitt says he got a disturbing message from one of Pennington’s former classmates, asking Pitt to call him.

PITT: And so I did. I called Hayden, and he said, “Hey, you remember Ben, right?” And I knew right then it wasn't going to—that discussion was not going to go well…

Staff Sergeant Benjamin Pennington of the First Space Brigade at Fort Carson, Colorado, died on March 8th. His death came one week after he was injured during an Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The seventh U.S. casualty in Operation Epic Fury.

BELL: Ben has always just been a steady, good kid, you know, just he puts his mind to something, and he does it.

That’s Michael Bell, the executive pastor at Glendale Christian Church. He pastored Pennington as he was growing up in this tight knit community of roughly 2000.

BELL: This happens everywhere else. It doesn't happen here, and when it comes home, it really hurts.

Bell remembers Pennington as an ambitious teenager who intentionally set hard goals and accomplished them.

BELL: When Ben was working on his Eagle Scout program, he came and we talked, and his program was a project in the park. It was a very major project…

That project involved removing concrete dugouts, backstops, and light poles before turning the space into a walking area. Bell says he knew at once the endeavor would be too much for the teen and he told him so.

BELL: You don't tell him something's impossible, because he's going to do it. I told him the job for the Eagle Scout, I said, “that's too big of a job. Can we divide it?” “I'll get her done!” And he did.

Bell says he got the tragic news of Pennington’s deteriorating condition as he was announcing a girls basketball game at the local high school.

BELL: And his dad called and said things had gone south. I left the ball game and turned around, and we had a word of prayer over the phone. And when I got home from the ball game, his dad told me he passed.

Since then, Bell says he’s been thinking a lot about Pennington’s Eagle Scout project.

BELL: I went down yesterday and just sat and looked at it, at the park, and saw the accomplishments, and what a change. And then I thought, here's a young man from a small community. He loved military service. And he gave himself. It took his all.

SOUND: [Shop noise]

Meanwhile, back at Pitt’s shop:

PITT: We’re gutted. That’s it. Absolutely gutted.

And Pitt knows Pennington might not be the only one of his students who may be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice.

PITT: I'm thankful that folks will and frustrated that they must.

In the meantime, Pitt will continue to help his students do what they love doing most: fixing things. While he remembers the student who died doing what those around him say he loved most: serving his country.

PITT: It was part of his life. You could tell it was part of his life.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Travis Kircher. From Elizabethtown and Glendale, Kentucky.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Last week, Scotland came closer than many expected to legalizing assisted suicide—but then pulled back. MSPs, that is, members of the Scottish Parliament rejected it after just a few months earlier having expressed support. So what changed? Here is WORLD Opinions commentator Bethel McGrew.

BETHEL MCGREW: Dr. Gordon Macdonald of the group Care Not Killing says lawmakers grew uneasy—not about the idea in theory, but about the reality in practice. He reflects on the vote here with interviewer Julia Hartley-Brewer:

MACDONALD: Just when people got to the end of the precipice, you know, they just sort of backed off because although lots of people agree in principle, when they think about it, in more detail, they change their minds. And I think we saw that with the MSPs as well.

As always, the phrase “assisted dying” has a certain seductive appeal to people. On the surface it sounds compassionate, controlled, even dignified. But lawmakers who initially supported the bill started to have second thoughts.

MACDONALD: Lots of the MSPs were worried about coercion, and they didn't feel that it was possible to protect against coercion, and as said by a number of them, even one case of coercion is one too many.

It was high stakes and high drama on the debate floor, as both sides wielded the power of personal narrative to make their case.

One lawmaker favoring the bill tearfully recalled her father’s decision to take his own life in Canada—describing a peaceful deathbed, surrounded by family, where he was able to say goodbye while still in his right mind.

SLATER: I don’t mind if you would never want this choice for yourself. But please, please, don’t prevent other people from choosing it for themselves.

The bill’s sponsor, Liam McArthur, urged wavering members to have what he called “the courage of your convictions.”

But he faced opposition from those showing a different kind of courage. Scottish lawmaker Jeremy Balfour—born missing all of one arm and most of the other—warned of the “Pandora’s box” such a law could open… creating the conditions for coercion:

BALFOUR: We would be opening a Pandora’s box, and the effects on the vulnerable in our society will be devastating.

Disability rights activist Pam Duncan-Glancy offered a stark warning from her wheelchair:

DUNCAN-GLANCY: In a world where so many have little or no choices, we cannot risk making death the only choice they ever have.

Many within the disability rights movement are not explicitly arguing from Christian premises. But Member of Parliament John Mason contextualized his vote within a Christian understanding of the human person:

MASON: At its core we believe that God gives life, and God decides when life should end. Clearly, there are also human reasons for both birth and death, but we believe that behind all of that, God is guiding and directing.

Mason went on to say that despite the undeniable suffering we might face at the end of life, as Christians we also have the hope of the resurrection, a timely reminder as Easter approaches.

For now, that view has carried the day. But the debate is far from over. Life won the battle in Scotland last week. Time will tell whether it will win the war.

For WORLD, I’m Bethel McGrew.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Tomorrow: A California jury rules against social media companies ,we’ll talk about it with John Stonestreet on Culture Friday. Also: a classic coming-of-age film gets a re-release for its 40th anniversary. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says, “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”  —Luke 17:7-10

Go now in grace and peace.

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