Joni Eareckson Tada - When Is It Right to Die?: A Comforting and Surprising Look at Death and Dying

CONTENTS

PRAISE FOR WHEN IS IT RIGHT TO DIE?

Over the course of several decades, Joni Eareckson Tada has helped us process the hard questions of life. In When Is It Right to Die? she does it againscripturally, carefully, and prayerfully. Thank you, Joni.

Max Lucado, pastor and bestselling author

All across the world, people are swallowing the lie that its better to be dead than to be disabled or facing serious ongoing health challenges. Thats why Im so glad that Joni Eareckson Tada has written this book. Hearing from someone who has lived with challenges is far more valuable to us than hearing from activists with an agenda.

Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family

Joni Eareckson Tada has been a champion not only for people with disabilities, but for all people who struggle with pain and disappointment. Always communicating with an assured smile and word of encouragement, Joni has masterfully maneuvered through the difficult subject of dying by shining the light of Gods Word filled with peace that overcomes the extremes of life. Your depth of understanding will increase as you exercise your right to choose the joy of eternal life that wins over our few short years on earth. Dont miss reading this one!

Franklin Graham, president and CEO of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritans Purse

Joni Eareckson Tada is not a professional ethicist pondering the theoretical; she is a wise and devoted Jesus follower living out the actualevery day for the past fifty years. When Is It Right to Die? offers no easy answers, but it is filled with profound wisdom and eternal perspective and overflows with grace and truth. Theres no one I would sooner listen to on this critical question than Joni.

Randy Alcorn, author and founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries

When we have questions, we want answersespecially when it comes to the tough topics. This means we all need this book. It is clear, concise, compelling. What a gift to our world!

June Hunt, founder and Chief Servant Officer, H OPE FOR THE H EART

Many Christians are committed to upholding the dignity of life at the beginning of life, but we face grave choices at the end of life too. We must get this one righttoo much hangs in the balance. Thankfully, Joni Eareckson Tada has offered the guidance in When Is It Right to Die? Hers is an important and trustworthy voice, and it needs to be heard.

John Stonestreet, president, the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview

ALSO BY JONI EARECKSON TADA

Joni: An Unforgettable Story

Diamonds in the Dust

Heaven: Your Real Home

When God Weeps

More Precious Than Silver

Pearls of Great Price

Finding God in Hidden Places

A Place of Healing

Joni & Ken: An Untold Love Story

Beyond Suffering

Beyond Suffering for the Next Generation

Beside Bethesda

A Spectacle of Glory

ZONDERVAN

When Is It Right to Die?

Copyright 1992, 2018 by Joni Eareckson Tada

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ISBN 978-0-310-34995-2 (ebook)

Epub Edition January 2018 ISBN 9780310349952

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Tada, Joni Eareckson, author.

Title: When is it right to die?: a comforting and surprising look at death and dying / Joni Eareckson Tada.

Description: Updated edition. | Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, [2017] | Originally published in 1992 as: When is it right to die?: Suicide, euthanasia, suffering, mercy. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017032678 | ISBN 9780310349945 (softcover)

Subjects: LCSH: SuicideSocial aspectsUnited States. | SuicideReligious aspects Christianity. | EuthanasiaSocial aspectsUnited States. | EuthanasiaReligious aspectsChristianity. | Right to dieUnited States. | People with disabilitiesUnited StatesAttitudes.

Classification: LCC HV6548.U5 T32 2017 | DDC 362.280973dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017032678

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked LB are taken from The Living Bible. Copyright 1971 by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version). Copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked Phillips are from The New Testament in Modern English by J. B. Phillips. Copyright 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by the Archbishops Council of the Church of England. Used by permission.

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

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Cover design: Studio Gearbox

Cover photos: Namning / Shutterstock

Interior design: Kait Lamphere

First printing December 2017 / Printed in the United States of America

To

Jean Swenson

Tawana Grabarz

Debbie Faculjak

three friends with disabilities

who have helped me find life worth living

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Please note that footnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication.

T he last twenty-five years have brought a lot of change. When I first penned the words to When Is It Right to Die? much of what I discussed was theoretical. We had begun to see the first signs of the soul-chilling societal acceptance of physician-assisted suicide, but we had to travel abroad to find places where such acceptance of murder had become commonplace. Twenty-five years ago, my hope had been to provide a primer of sorts to readers whose only exposure to euthanasia was the occasional headline.

But in the last twenty-five years, Ive ached as Ive seen more and more people stand behind the idea that a person has the right to die. And it gets worse. It is no longer a matter of merely supporting a person who has decided that his or her own life is not worth living. No, we are witnesses to more instances where the right to die has been given to a person with no say in the matter.

In the fall of 2014, the story broke that a judge in the United Kingdom ruled that, at the request of the mother, food and water should be withdrawn from Nancy Fitzmaurice, a twelve-year-old girl with significant disabilities. This ruling came even