Lord, Remember Mercy: When a Country Votes for Death

On June 17, MPs voted through an amendment to decriminalize abortion in the UK by 379 votes to only 137. This vote came after only 46 minutes of debate and means that a woman will be able to carry out her own abortion up until birth for any reason whatsoever without fear of prosecution. Our abortion laws are already extremely liberal; women may have an abortion up to 24 weeks gestation and up until birth in the case of a fetal abnormality. Three days later, on June 20, MPs voted in favor of the assisted dying bill by 314 votes to 291. This bill will legalize assisted suicide for adults in England and Wales who are terminally ill and expected to have only six months to live. Both these laws need to be approved by the House of Lords, but the way our government works means that they are likely to be passed into law.

Those of us who love life wrote to our MPs, signed petitions, and prayed, but it was hard to be hopeful when we knew the numbers were not on our side. We are seeing the consequences of a nation that has abandoned God as Creator (see Romans 1:18–32). These issues cannot be undone in a day. In fact, it is hard to find a clearer example of the practical outworking of the godless theory of evolution.

Survival of the Fittest

Ideas have consequences, and Darwin’s idea of evolution by “natural selection” or “survival of the fittest”1 greatly impacted his second cousin Sir Francis Galton. Galton is known as the father of eugenics. He theorised that because people interfered with the process of natural selection in society, the fittest did not always survive. Galton coined the word eugenics from a Greek word meaning “good in birth” or “noble in heredity.”2 And in 1908, he defined eugenics as “the study of agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally.”3

Two of the largest abortion providers in the UK are MSI (formerly known as Marie Stopes) and BPAS (British Pregnancy Advisory Service), and both were heavily influenced by Galton’s ideas at their root. Marie Stopes opened the first birth control clinic in London in 1921. She was a eugenicist who corresponded with Adolf Hitler and believed that some women should be prevented from having children. In her book Radiant Motherhood, she wrote:

It should be the policy of the community to discourage from parenthood all whose circumstances are such as would make probable the introduction of weakened, diseased or debased future citizens. It is the urgent duty of the community to make parenthood impossible for those whose mental and physical conditions are such that there is well-nigh a certainty that their offspring must be physically and mentally tainted, if not utterly permeated by disease.4

As well as being a eugenicist, Marie Stopes was herself heavily influenced by Darwin.

As well as being a eugenicist, Marie Stopes was herself heavily influenced by Darwin. Stopes was a palaeobotanist who tried to solve what was known as Darwin’s “abominable mystery”—the evolutionary origin of flowers.5

BPAS is the longest-running abortion provider in the UK, and it began as Birmingham Pregnancy Advisory Service in 1968. One of the key figures involved in developing this service was Martin Cole, a humanist and a member of the British Eugenics Society.6 The Eugenics Society was involved in not only propagating the theory of eugenics but also in considering how the ideals of eugenics could be practically achieved.7

Abortion providers are quick to decry their eugenicist links, but the impact remains because the present reality in the UK is that some lives are seen as more valuable than others.

The Image of God

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

The biblical truth that we are made in the image of God should govern every interaction and relationship that we have with another human being, yet current UK abortion laws ignore personhood and life’s inherent value, and the assisted dying bill looks set to do the same.

In 1990, the term limit for abortion was reduced from 28 weeks to 24 weeks, but alarmingly, the same act removed all time limits in the case of a disability in the unborn child. This means that children found to have Down syndrome, cleft palate, or any other number of disabilities are discriminated against before they are even born. Some would even suggest that mothers are put under pressure to have their unborn child aborted. MP Jen Craft, in her contribution to the debate on assisted dying, said that on being given a diagnosis of her daughter’s Down syndrome, she was offered an abortion within 48 hours. In fact, as a result of prenatal screening tests, 90% of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted.8 A document published by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists all but overtly states that when an unborn child is discovered to have a birth defect, the mother is to be offered an abortion.9

Abortion laws target the vulnerable. It is currently illegal in the UK to even pray silently outside of an abortion clinic, much less offer a practical alternative to women who are under pressure from partners, parents, and friends to have an unwanted abortion.

The UK has a socialized health-care system, which is creaking at the seams, and the same silencing and pressure will inevitably occur if assisted dying becomes law. Namely, vulnerable people will feel pressure to have their life ended against their will so that they will not be a burden to society or because little palliative care is available to make their final days and months more comfortable. The ill and the elderly are extremely vulnerable. They are vulnerable physically but also emotionally. It is hard for individuals to stay strong in conviction when bodily functions are failing and there is pressure to take the seemingly easy way out.

The politicians who are arguing for “dignity in death” are articulate, well-connected, and wealthy. They are unlikely to feel coerced into dying against their will, and they will most likely receive the care in their final days that will keep them from wanting to prematurely end their own lives.

Disguised as an Angel of Light

How do those who love death and hate life (see Proverbs 8:36) sell their twisted philosophy to the world? The answer is that they sell it as compassion rather than killing.

In the garden in Eden, Satan took the form of a serpent and persuaded Eve to question God’s word (Genesis 3:1). In the same way, advocates of abortion and euthanasia frame their arguments with the buzzwords compassion and mercy. They deny God’s Word where it says it is wrong to murder (Exodus 20:13) and that God has numbered our days (Psalm 139:16). They equate allowing only God to take life with a lack of compassion since it may allow for some discomfort and loss of control.

Proponents of the assisted dying bill argue that this is a remedy for loneliness, pain, and suffering. The reality is that all of these things could be alleviated by good palliative care and a society that once more values family. God clearly has compassion on the elderly (Psalm 68:5), and we should ensure that widows are taken care of either by the family or the church (1 Timothy 5:9).

Yet what is the church in the UK doing about the issue of abortion? Sadly, its most prominent name stands for abortion. Just a few weeks before MPs voted for the change in law, world-renowned New Testament theologian and former bishop of Durham N. T. Wright effectively condoned abortion for any reason (i.e., rape, incest, medical issues).10 This is a solemn indicator of the problem that we have within the church in the UK. The nation reflects the church—the church should be the conscience of the nation, and if the conscience is dull, then it follows that the nation’s actions will be evil (see Jeremiah 5:20–31).

Praying for Repentance

The legalization of abortion in 1967 proved to be the thin of the wedge. There is little doubt that the assisted dying bill will also ultimately open the door to many thousands of vulnerable people having their lives taken from them. Kim Leadbeater (the MP who proposed the assisted dying bill) and the politicians who voted for death will one day stand and give an account before Christ (Acts 17:31).

But we have hope. We watched and rejoiced when Roe v. Wade was overturned in the USA. We remember that God used one man (William Wilberforce) in Parliament to stop the slave trade over 200 years ago, and we pray that among our children, many will rise up and be used by God to throw out these wicked laws. Above all, we desperately pray and hope that our nation will come to repentance before many more lives are lost. Lord, in justice remember mercy. The Puritan preacher Thomas Watson once wrote:

England [The United Kingdom] is an island encompassed by two oceans, an ocean of water, and an ocean of wickedness. O that it might be encompassed by a third ocean, that of repenting tears.11