Medical aid in dying is one of those subjects that can bring up very strong emotions. For some people, the idea feels compassionate and merciful. For others, it conflicts deeply with what they were taught about life, death, God, and suicide.
But what does Spirit think about it?
From what I have seen in my work with Spirit, there is no spiritual law that says a person must remain alive for as long as their physical body can possibly function, regardless of how much they are suffering.
We come here with free will, and that free will extends to decisions about our bodies and our lives. Spirit certainly encourages us to live. Our guides want us to experience joy, love, connection, growth, adventure, and all the things we came here to experience. When we are going through a difficult period, they will often encourage us to keep going because circumstances can change. Pain can ease. New people can enter our lives. Something that feels unbearable today may not feel unbearable forever.
But there are also situations in which a person is experiencing tremendous physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual suffering, and the road ahead may contain very little possibility of relief.
Spirit understands the difference.
One of the misconceptions people sometimes have about the spirit world is that there is a rigid set of rules governing every decision we make, and that if we break one of those rules we will somehow be punished after we die.
That has not been my experience at all.
Spirit looks at our choices through the lens of love, compassion, understanding, intention, and circumstance. There isn’t a celestial courtroom waiting to prosecute someone because they decided they could no longer endure unbearable suffering.
There is also a difference between religious law and spiritual law.
Many people have been taught through their religion that taking your own life is a sin because God gave you life and therefore only God has the right to take it away. I understand why someone who has been raised with that belief might struggle tremendously with the idea of medical aid in dying.
But religious doctrine is created and interpreted by human beings. Spiritual law is something different.
From Spirit’s perspective, free will is one of the fundamental conditions of incarnation. We are allowed to make choices while we’re here, including enormously consequential ones. Choosing medical aid in dying does not cause a soul to be rejected by Spirit, condemned, punished, or prevented from crossing over.
There is another aspect of this subject that I think deserves consideration.
When an animal we love is suffering terribly and there is no reasonable hope of recovery, we often make the heartbreaking decision to euthanize them. We do it because we love them. We don’t say, “You must continue suffering until your body shuts down naturally because ending your suffering would be spiritually wrong.”
We hold them. We comfort them. We tell them we love them. And then, with tremendous sadness, we allow them to leave peacefully.
We call that compassion.
So it is worth asking why compassion toward unbearable suffering should suddenly become morally suspect when the suffering belongs to a human being who is capable of expressing their own wishes.
There is also something to be said for the manner in which a person leaves this world.
If someone has reached the point where they are absolutely determined to end their life, forcing them into secrecy may leave them contemplating frightening, violent, and potentially unsuccessful methods. Hanging, shooting oneself, jumping from a height, or using some other traumatic method can create tremendous additional suffering, not only for the person dying but for the people who discover them and the loved ones left behind.
A medically supervised or legally regulated process can allow death to occur in a very different environment. There can be conversations. There can be goodbyes. There can be family present. There can be love, dignity, preparation, and peace. A celebration of life.
That doesn’t mean Spirit is encouraging people to die whenever life becomes painful.
Quite the opposite.
If there is hope for healing, Spirit will encourage you toward healing. If there is a path back to joy, Spirit will encourage you to find it. If depression, grief, trauma, fear, loneliness, or another potentially temporary circumstance is convincing you that your life can never get better, there may be possibilities ahead that you simply cannot see from where you are standing.
Spirit sees those possibilities.
But compassion also requires us to acknowledge that not every form of suffering can be fixed. There are people living with devastating illnesses and conditions that cause relentless suffering. There are circumstances where the body is deteriorating and the person knows what lies ahead. There are situations in which every available avenue for relief has been explored and the person feels they have reached the end of what they can bear.
I don’t believe Spirit looks at that person with judgment.
I believe Spirit looks at them with love.
Ultimately, medical aid in dying is an intensely personal decision. No one should be pressured toward death, and no one should be pressured to remain alive merely to satisfy someone else’s religious beliefs or emotional needs. The decision belongs to the person whose life and suffering are actually being experienced.
And if that person ultimately chooses to leave?
Spirit will be there.
Your guides aren’t standing at the entrance to the spirit world with their arms crossed, disappointed that you arrived earlier than someone on Earth thought you should. They understand what you experienced here. They understand your pain. They understand the circumstances surrounding your decision.
You are still loved.
You are still received.
You are still a soul.
And you still go Home.
