Uk Chooses Death From Beginning To End

Two literal life-changing votes were held in the UK Parliament this week, one concerning the beginning of life and one centering on the end of life. On Tuesday, MPs voted 379 to 137 to “decriminalise abortion.” And on Friday, MPs backed an assisted suicide law by 314 to 291.

As a result of these two votes (and provided both laws are approved by the House of Lords), we will experience two of the biggest social changes in our country for generations. In both cases, Members of the UK Parliament have further undermined the intrinsic dignity of human beings made in God’s image. More lives will be needlessly lost.

Loss at Life’s Beginning

Even by UK standards, with one of the most permissive abortion regimes in Europe, this new law allowing abortions as late as birth is extreme. Since the 1967 Abortion Act, the number of abortions has been increasing. The latest official figures show a record of more than 252,000 abortions in England and Wales in 2022, an increase of 17 percent from 2021.

This new law harms women as well as their babies. More women will suffer deep regret and worse. Decriminalization doesn’t address any of the diverse reasons many women choose abortion, including poverty, absent fathers, peer pressure, and anxiety that sometimes accompanies pregnancy.

We have witnessed a devastating, desperate, and dark turn for our nation and a further retreat from the beautiful, better story we find in God’s Word. According to the wisdom of our Creator, life begins at conception, and every human is “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:13–14), crafted by the Lord in the womb and granted the glory and honor of being his image-bearers (Ps. 8:5).

We have witnessed a devastating, desperate, and dark turn for our nation and a further retreat from the beautiful, better story we find in God’s Word.

The prophet Habakkuk expresses what many Christians now feel, when he asks the Lord how he can tolerate such wickedness (Hab. 1:2–4).

Loss at Life’s End

As if the abortion vote wasn’t bad enough, in the same week, MPs approved an assisted suicide law that applies in England and Wales.

Many MPs changed their minds since voting for the legislation in November last year. We praise God for the diligent prayers and letter writing of Christians across the UK ahead of the vote. Tragically, not enough of the House of Commons heeded these warnings. Unless the House of Lords blocks it, expect to see assisted suicide offered on the National Health Service from 2029 onwards.

MPs have voted to allow patients who meet broad criteria the option of an assisted suicide. Shockingly, and despite many warnings from experts and constituents, MPs even rejected an amendment that would have made it explicit that a person is not eligible for assisted suicide if substantially motivated by feeling a burden, a disability, or depression.

For the first time in UK history, lawmakers have granted the legal right for doctors to help patients kill themselves. The constitution of our NHS will have to be rewritten, and that is to say nothing about how this law change undermines the Hippocratic Oath where doctors promise to give no deadly medicine to patients. Under this law, doctors will even be able to raise assisted suicide with patients who meet the criteria, even if the patient has not asked for it.

In the United States, some states have already legalized assisted suicide and are living with its consequences. I grieve that we have taken the same path. The “right to die” will become a duty to die for some. How many desperate souls will be prematurely ushered into a lost eternity because of this change?

Taken together, both votes show that the cultural landscape of the UK is moving further and further away from its Christian roots. We have seen signs of what is being called a “quiet revival,” especially among younger people. But politically speaking, we are continuing to dismantle the final remnants of our Christian heritage.

Politically speaking, we are continuing to dismantle the final remnants of our Christian heritage.

These laws result from making individual autonomy an idol. We are not made to live free from God, but made for him to live in gospel freedom under the law of Christ. Echoing the whisper of Satan, society tells us the Christian way is restrictive and harmful. But true freedom is only found in following God’s design. Living subject to God’s Word is not limiting. It is the only path to abundant life (John 10:10).

Call to Pray

So, what now? The church is still salt and light in this world (Matt. 5:13–16), and we are still called to be a voice for the voiceless (Prov. 31:8–9). The work of organizations like CARE will intensify as we hold out biblical truth and call for justice. Pray that the evangelical church in the UK might be alive and alert to the true state of our society.

Pray also that we might have the courage and hope to act by speaking God’s better story into our broken society. Pray that we might show the love of Christ practically by adoption, fostering, supporting crisis pregnancy centers and hotlines, giving to hospices, and serving the ill and suffering.

More than a decade ago, Stanley Hauerwas said, “I say in a hundred years, if Christians are known as a strange group of people who don’t kill their children and don’t kill the elderly, we will have done a great thing.” May God spare the United States and other countries from traveling the same road as the United Kingdom. And may our God give us all wisdom as we seek to speak with truth and grace even in a degrading culture.