Have you noticed that children often possess profound sensibility? Amidst their innocence there can be a purity and clarity of thought, an ability to see through the competing forces of propaganda that can corrupt and distort reality.
They see what many more “enlightened” people miss.
Such was the case when a 12-year-old daughter of a Focus on the Family staff member asked her mom last week about Colorado voting to approve doctor-assisted suicide.
For context, the passage of Proposition 106 made Colorado the sixth state in the country to allow doctors to prescribe lethal drugs for some patients for end their lives by suicide.
It was in the aftermath of last Tuesday’s Colorado vote that Abbie posed the following pointed question:
“Mom, why do we go to suicide prevention programs at school if grown-ups say it’s now okay?”
Our children can see through the rhetoric and euphemisms to the heart of the matter. And they know that when Colorado voters chose to grant terminally ill patients the “right” to end their own lives, they also sent a very contradictory message to vulnerable teens.
Tragically, since 2000, the teen suicide rate in the U.S. has climbed dramatically. Colorado already has one of the highest teen suicide rates in the nation. There are numerous theories as to why, but surely the promotion and acceptance of doctor-assisted suicide has only contributed to it. Suicide is increasingly cloaked with words like “compassion” and “dignity,” but the reality is it offers neither.
I’d like to hear your perspective. Let me know your thoughts in the comments section, below.
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Focus on the Family is here to help you understand tough issues and how they might impact your family. For more information on the topics covered in this blog post, please visit www.focusonthefamily.com. We have various resources that might be helpful to you, including:
- Physician-Assisted Suicide article series
- Your Teen’s Mental Health article series
- Our website’s question-and-answer section
- A guest blog post, “Why This Doctor and Widower Opposes Physician-Assisted Suicide”
We’re also here to walk alongside you. To speak with a family help specialist, contact us at 1-800-A-FAMILY (232-6459) Monday through Friday between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. Mountain time. For an urgent or serious need, you can arrange to speak with a counselor by calling 1-855-771-HELP (4357).
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