Christian Worldview Concepts

Feeding Tubes and End-of-Life Decision Making

When Does Life Have Sanctity?

How we respond to this latter question takes us beyond the narrow interests of medicine and confronts us with the central question, especially for Christians — is life a question of what the individual wants or is it a question of being willing to accept whatever life a sovereign God allows one to have? Does human life have "sanctity" only when it is valuable to the individual and/or family members or the broader human community?

Biblically, humans are not the authors of life, they are the benefactors. Life is a benefit that requires no other justification for its continuance. The sanctity of human life is not a privilege bestowed only so long as a life has value and meaning, but it is a statement about the transcendent value of each individual life. Humans have value because they are created in God's image, not because they somehow acquire value.