Wisdom for new medicines,treatments, etc come from God. God creates, Satin imitates. No one knows what they might do if faced with this decision, but I believe it is a matter of choice since the side effects of most of these treatments are great and even has been concluded that they can cause death also. I had a dear friend who chose chemo. Instead of dying of cancer, died of heart failure due to the chemo. Seeking God's will and taking what action you feel God is directing would be my priority.... If I am confident in my decision, I don't believe it is a sin......I have witnessed divine healing , prolonged life with the use of modern drugs & treatments. Healing comes in many forms. The most important is the person's heart is right with God and they are saved.

I never thought of it that way. Food for thought, however I would say , in my opinion, it is not sin. I will be interested in what others thoughts are.

I have been thinking about this a lot here in the past few days, but with a twist. I know of a couple who live in Dallas who just recently gave birth to a child with Trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome). They knew prenatally that he had this, or at least were 90% sure, due to the markers they saw on ultrasound. They refused amnio, which would have given them 100% certainty because they were afraid it would hurt the baby and cause a miscarriage. Well ALL of their doctors tried to get them to abort, and they refused. They were told most babies with this die in utero anyway, and those that did survive to birth, did not survive labor, and of the very few that made it through labor, most were dead in the first few hours or days. Well the couple refused abortion and said they would let God decide his fate. Well the baby was born two weeks ago and did indeed have Trisomy 18. He was born very, very sick, with horrific heart defects and could barely breath and was suffering. The doctors did not want to do any treatment at all on the baby because they considered it inhumane and was prolonging the child's suffering. The parents did wind up having oxygen put on the baby, and finally a feeding tube down in his stomach, which I am sure was uncomfortable for the poor baby. The parents wanted heart surgery to correct his valves, but believe it or not, it is very hard to find surgeons to operate on a child with this condition. They aren't deemed as viable. So, anyway, the poor baby died yesterday of heart failure. So in this case, even though there were medical interventions, the doctors themselves wouldn't even help. And I can't help but wonder since the parents were leaving it up to God, what about the feeding tube? He would have died a few days earlier without it, but probably would have been more comfortable. I don't know....I am sure if it were my baby I would have tried anything too, but I find it odd that the doctors refused to help. I guess what I am wondering is...would it have been a sin to not give him the oxygen and the feeding tube and just let him pass? Were the parents second guessing God by insisting on these things?

Oxygen is a source of comfort for end stage patients facing their last days or hours of life. It doesn't prolong life necessarily, but spares the patient the frightening feeling of not having air. The PEG tube (or feeding tube) is for sustaining life, or when a patient survives the prognosis of time that was expected, and the family doesn't want the patient to suffer from hunger. It's so hard to watch a loved one suffer, that sometimes, families will request whatever possible to help give the patient comfort, even though they don't expect their love one to survive.

I have been in the medical field for over 30 years, and while I believe medicine is a gift from God, I also wonder what my own decision will be if I'm faced with a terminal illness.

I am in the nursing field also and worked 20+ years in long term care,and when patients would be put hospice they were given Roxanol for pain and some of the families didnt realize it was for pain but it also slowed there breathing sometimes i would feel very guilty giving it cause just because the doctor ordered it every so many hours it isnt law,and nursing we are supposed to useour judgement.Some of the families would insist it to be given and i felt it was for there benifit so they didnt have to be there,isnt this just awful,sommersmom i bet we could tell some stories.

You do see so much suffering in this field. I have also seen some truly wonderful miracles, but the profession is growing more and more challenging. I've moved into the corporate level now, and left the floor behind me. I don't have the energy anymore. :)

I am not in the medical field although one my sons is an oncology nurse. Health is truly a gift of God and every day is a gift of God. I do believe what any one decides to do is between them and the Lord. He leads each of us differently in life and His Word just asks us to be obedient to Him.

God bless each one here with the blessing of health and healing.

There are so many variables, every illness, every cancer, every treatment is different ... and what a person decides to choose may be different than another. I don't see how refusing one treatment or another would be sin ...
Barby... I hope you are okay and not facing an illness....
I don't think this is something we can even know what to do or what we'd do in advance ... we'd only know what we'd do as we are faced with it in the moment.

Thank you difficulttime, I'm okay. Someone I love chose to refuse cancer treatment and move on quickly to heaven. I know she's with the Lord, her burdens are gone, she's happy and at peace. I respect and honour her choice. There are others out there who believe people should fight with all they have to stay here, and are angry if they don't.
"Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die."

It is definitely NOT A SIN either way ......if you choose chemo....or don't.......however chemo and radiation have NEVER cured cancer.....the doctors will tell you this.....it is not a cure only a treatment.....I prefer natural treatments.....but I also take antibiotics when I need them...and synthroid every day for my bad thyroid.....so I think it needs to be a very personal decision and done between the patient and God ....so pray for God to lead you in the right way of healing.....it may be medicine a doctor prescribes or it may be that you are consuming something toxic like Cigarettes, alcohol, caffeine, too much Junk food or GMO food etc......God will lead you to get rid of the bad stuff and put in the good stuff and if meds are needed or not.....that is my thoughts on it

There is so much involved in these decisions. When my mother was dying, the doctor wanted to know if we wanted her on life support. I asked if there was anything that would make her better and he said no. So we let it up to God and He took her that night. I feel at peace since we prayed and asked His will be done. Each situation is different. I don't want life support when my time comes but maybe something so I don't have pain. God blesses us with the knowledge of how to treat some diseases - some times they work and some times they don't. Medicine, from what I understand,, is making great gains in many fields. There is also God's own healing power. We have a young man in our church who has severe lung and heart problems. Lungs became available and of course we prayed and prayed. His chances were slim but the transplant worked and he is back to his research work, enjoying his wife and 2 small children. Due to the lung transplant, for some reason, his heart is doing much better. I don't understand these things and would probably just be confused by people explaining it. So I think it is important to listen to God, our hearts will tell us, then make intelligent and God given answers to treatment or not.

I don't think it's a sin to let the body fail if it is going to. It's a personal decision and one that should be prayed about but we are only required to not take our lives, we don't have to take treatment to possibly prolong it, especially when, as stated before, the treatments can cause the death even sooner.

Just before Thanksgiving my 88 year old grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was progressed to a late stage. The doctors rushed her, in a panic to have her right breast removed. They wanted her to begin chemo or radiation within 2 weeks after surgery. I pleaded with my mom to persuade her not to risk it, to enjoy the last of her time without being sick from those treatments. In December she decided not to take treatment. She has made her peace with living the rest of her days knowing it'll take her sooner than later.

The thing is, she's 88, she's buried several husbands, the longest being the 25 + years with my grandpa and a few short marriages that were for comfort in her older years. She outlived them and outlived 1 daughter already. She has many grandchildren who grew up loving her but as adults only 2 of us call/visit/think about her the rest either stopped caring or grew too busy. The fact is, she's sad, she's lonely, she misses my grandpa, she misses her daughter who passed at 46, she sits in a senior living apartment seeing life pass her by. If at 88 she is ready for her journey to end and lets cancer take her then there is no sin at all in that. As long as she prays and makes her soul ready then I don't think there's anything wrong with her choice. I and my cousin and my mom and a couple others will miss her so tremendously but I can understand her longing to final rest when the best of her life has passed by and she's left sad more days than not because everyone seemed to have left her save for a few.

I'm sorry for the passing of your friend but those who feel it was a sin are wrong. Maybe her family is sad that she didn't hold on by any means possible but again, it is a most personal decision between her and God and hopefully, in time, they will find peace.

I'll add that though I asked my mom to help persuade my grandmother not to take chemo at 88 she did not broach the subject, it is a decision my grandmother ultimately made on her own but one I was glad for because I think this gives us and her the best quality time together. God gave her peace in it and she said she's ready to go home when he calls her. I'd left that out and didn't want it to seem like I made the decision for her. My mom was wise enough to let her make it on her own. Mine was a knee jerk reaction to doctors rushing to start either chemo or radiation on an 88 yr old who already has health issues on top of late stage cancer.

My mother lived in a state that allowed the doctor to terminate the terminally ill. However, her doctor only worked at a Catholic hospital, so couldn't order it. In that year's time she was put on a course of treatment reserved for younger patients, but she was so healthy they tried it on her. It prolonged her life long enough for her to get saved and for our fractured relationship to be more than healed. On her deathbed, she held her hand up to my face and said, "I am so glad you were born." Decades earlier, she used that same hand to slap me several times and once yelled, "I wish you'd never been born!" She stated firmly that the last year of her life was both the worst and best year of her life - the worst, for the discomfort, pain, and embarrassment she endured - the best, because she came to know Jesus personally and she felt the love of God through me. So, God orchestrated circumstances for her to have some extra time - it was out of her hands. It wouldn't have been a sin if she had chosen to die earlier -- but it would have been a shame, in her case. We do death badly anymore - talk about estrangement. I volunteer to be with those as they graduate into Heaven when they have no loved ones and I don't know if I am more blessed or they. Nowadays, we remove our loved ones from their homes and pay big bucks for someone else to tend to them. I asked a hospice administrator years ago if it is usual for someone to be with those who are passing and they say it's uncommon for that to happen. In my experience, it has been common for those who are passing to 'wake up' just before they go....we do the best we can....

Everloving, that was beautiful, what a blessing that you and your mother had that time to set things right emotionally and spiritually and what a blessing you are to those who have no one to wait out the death watch with them. It's such a scary lonely time, imagine being born into this world with no one to catch or hold you or comfort you, the same would be leaving with no one to hold your hand and help sooth you in those final moments. May your life be continually blessed for your kindness to those who have no one else or no one willing to come.