Wednesday, February 14, 2018

When Is It Right to Die? by Joni Eareckson Tada

Joni Eareckson Tada has been a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic for more than 50 years. She is sympathetic to the physical, emotional, social and spiritual struggles of those who are challenged to have a full life. This book is Tada’s answer to the right-to-die movement, and she writes thoroughly, considering the movement itself. One of her unique contributions to the topic are her beliefs about how euthanasia affects others, self, Satan and God. I understood the author to say she believes that only when death is actively approaching without hope of reversal is it right to withhold life-sustaining measures. This was a thought-provoking work with which I happen to not agree, as I am of the opinion that science has outpaced ethics; just because a person can be kept alive does not mean they should be. The last few decades have challenged medical ethics with mind-bending dilemmas in a way they have not been challenged for millennia. Artificial means of sustaining life now call for reason and emotion to make decisions that bodies alone used to make, which makes it necessary for books such as this one to be written. I received this book for free in exchange for my unbiased review through the Thomas Nelson BookSneeze Program.