My Life is not Mine to have Absolute Rights Over

With a house of commons debate and vote scheduled, 'Assisted Dying' is very much a current topic of news and discussion. A key theme that comes through the arguments in favour of changing the law (i.e. to allow circumstances for assisted dying) is an individual's 'Right to Choose'. Above all the arguments in favour or against, this assertion of 'Right to Choose' is very important for us to understand from a mission perspective.

The problem with this 'Right', alongside the many other 'Rights' (or 'Human Rights') that we assert or talk about in contemporary society, is the implicit assumption that we should have them without any consideration of why we should have them. Where do these rights actually come from? What is their basis?

That is not to say that we humans don't or should not have any rights ... but from a Christian perspective we need to think more deeply of their basis. The right to change religion, for example, can be traced (with a Christian perspective) to God giving people free-will.

Some rights should come about because 'world society' (i.e. nations agreeing collectively) agrees that each individual should be accorded that right. In other words some rights are humans conferring them on each other ... agreeing that life (& society) is better for all if we all try and respect such rights. The rights of refugees are an example of this.

The problem with the 'Right to Choose' concerning one's death, is that from a Christian perspective (and likely various other faith perspectives) the life of each individual is a gift of God, along with a sense that the 'on-earth' beginning point is up to God, and the corresponding end-point is also up to God. If a life 'is taken' by actions of others, an accounting of their actions is required of them (e.g. see Genesis 4 Cain & Abel). This means that in a Christian understanding, my life is not mine to have absolute rights over, but is instead given to me by God, with the timing of that gift best left to God's hands.

The push to assert a 'Right to Choose' is part of the relentless cultural trend of individualism: each individual is a person with rights of their own without any external claims. In that sense it is the natural outworking of secularism: 'I feel ... therefore I am', without need for reference to God. Put another way, it is another resonance with the assertion made in Genesis 3: 'I can grab this on my own - I don't need God'.

Christians in mission will want to counter this cultural trend, but that needs to be done compassionately. It is no use saying "You do not have such a right - tough luck"! Person by person, individual by individual, we would want to lovingly encourage them to see that life is a gift, even when things go wrong (be it medically or by tragedy). That life-gift sits in a context that is way bigger than any one of us, and so there is a call to lift our eyes to a greater perspective - through which we might be able to see our circumstances differently.

The life-gift from God implies certain rights, and as people living this life-gift together we can (and should) collectively confer rights on each other ... but all in the context of life-gift from God, and therefore each understanding (and accepting the understanding) that our own life is not ours to have absolute rights over.