In August 2026, we were waiting in the office for the doctor to come in and explain the procedure. My daughter sat with me quietly crying while a noise machine exuded peaceful wave sounds.
My eyes fell onto a little bookshelf that displayed options about cremation vs. burial. The doctor came in. In a calming voice, she explained there would be two injections into the IV line.
We said goodbye to our 15-year-old dog, whom my husband, Josh, loved and then she was gone.
An Invitation
Euthanasia is a practice that is seen as compassionate for our pets, but what about when it comes to a person? What is the justice due? What is the compassionate response to a person suffering towards death?
Suffering is not a natural state we embrace. Our first parents brought suffering into the world with the birth of original sin. This was not a part of God’s original plan. We are drawn to our own comfort and control, which is why surrendering to suffering gives opportunity for God to take control and His supernatural grace to enter our souls (Philippians 4:13). God always wants to be invited in.
The News
In August of 2024, two years earlier, I woke up in the hospital after spending the night there supporting Josh. He had been admitted earlier that week because he had spiked a fever and was having complications with his oral chemotherapy. It had been our 14th wedding anniversary the day before.
Early that morning, our doctor sat us down and gave us unbearable news.
After nine months of treatments since his diagnosis in January (multiple chemotherapies, immunotherapies, experimental therapies, and a bone marrow transplant), we no longer had options of treatment for Josh’s Acute Myeloid Leukemia. He was considered terminal and was given two weeks to two months to live.
In shock, we discharged that day to get home to our five young children, ages 1 to 11.
Strength in Weakness
We had held holy hope for months through the vicious trials of cancer therapies and treatments. Our family maintained a grace-filled trust in God’s plan from the beginning of Josh’s cancer diagnosis. Now, being faced with Josh’s death, would our hope turn to despair?
Surprisingly, as Josh’s body thinned and his abilities lessened over the next two months, his leadership within our family increased. In a very Christ-like way, as he weakened, he became stronger.
Our family navigated the next two months with courageous joy and hope, knowing that Dad now had a “chance” of going to heaven (as he said tongue-in-cheek to make us smile), which was a testimony to Josh’s participation in God’s grace and his steadfast faith in Christ’s promises.
Our family of seven was gifted days of enjoying movies and puzzles together, spoiling Josh by making favorite meals and smoothies, and even arranging for a special weekend-with-Dad trip for one of our daughters on her 10th birthday.
What is the proper response to terminal suffering? Care and presence. True compassion shares the pain making the cross real but the yoke of suffering light.
On regular weekdays, the kids would sit at the dining room table homeschooling with me. By mid-morning, Josh would emerge from the bedroom, with great effort, and would make it out to our recliner couch across the room to be present with our children. If a child had a problem in math, I would send him or her over to Dad on the couch for tutoring, since he was our local in-house math major. This gave purpose and dignity in our children’s eyes as they saw their father’s abilities drastically decline but knew they could still draw near to him.
The Broad Road
There are factions of our society that encourage us to take the broad road and avoid the suffering. Canada has now reached over 100,000 deaths through medical assistance for terminal patients since making it legal in 2016, only 10 years ago.[1] That equates to 45 deaths per day. In fact, the number of deaths in Canada from euthanasia exceeds the number of gun deaths in the US.[2]
There are nineteen countries and jurisdictions throughout the world that offer legal options like euthanasia, assisted suicide, Medical Aid in Dying (MAID), and passive euthanasia.[3] Even here in our own country, the state of Illinois has just become the 13th state in America – in addition to the District of Columbia – to allow assisted suicide as a medical option.[4]
Even here in Georgia, the threat to personhood for Georgians facing end of life is real. In 2020, the Georgia Death with Dignity Act (SB291)[5] was introduced in the state senate, but due to COVID, the legislature was suspended and the bill did not advance. Just this year, the state senate again introduced the Georgia Death and Dignity Act (SB610).[6] Though the bill did not advance due to the legislative session’s ending, it may very well be introduced again in the 2027-28 session.[7]
In a country that prints “In God We Trust” on its currency and its license plates, assisted suicide is not an option. Man is evil at heart (Genesis 6:5), which is why our relationship with God is an unquestionable necessity. All good comes from Him. If assisted suicide is covered in glossy permissible language and supported by law, how can one resist the temptation to violate the Lord’s commandment and kill in the face of unbearable suffering?
Death is messy and the decisions around it are emotionally complex. I wouldn’t blame a patient or supporting family members in the face of terminal suffering to be overwrought with fear and desire to abandon the circumstances. Even eleven of the twelve apostles abandoned Jesus Christ in His most passionate suffering and death.
Avoidance of suffering is natural, which is why the Christian Way of abandonment to the supernatural is necessary.
Whatever It Takes
My husband was granted a happy death, even though some would say it was overwrought with agony.
Supported through an excellent hospice situation, our family was able to be at home with Josh in his last hours, surrounding him in his own bed.
Josh’s body slowly broke down, becoming paralyzed over the last nine hours of his life. In response to that, he and I both witnessed our children pray out loud in a way that was astounding.
As Josh became more incapacitated, the children’s prayers became more intense in a constant overlapping vocal prayer for over an hour. Never could Josh in a healthy state have stood over his children as their father, insisting they pray out loud for a solid hour, but in his completely debilitated state of being, unable to speak or even move, his leadership showed forth and inspired deep faith in myself and our children; a faith that now creates a daily desire for heaven.
Those last moments with him were forever life-forming, pain-full, and joy-filled knowing confidently, up to his last breath, Josh was given the opportunity to lead our family by submitting to God’s will. Our children received every possible fatherly lesson from him while he was on earth, according to God’s design.
Our family’s suffering is a testimony that there is a good God, and that while enduring the trials of life or the transition of death, Our Father in heaven extends His supernatural grace to everyone. Any suffering in my widowhood has been a gift. It is my cross to pick up and my pathway to heaven. In the face of that, I receive the suffering with His grace and adopt the attitude – “Whatever it takes!” – because my husband and My Father are waiting for me in heaven.
Sources:
[1] 10 years, 100,000 deaths: How Canada became the euthanasia capital of the world | EWTN News; Canada Sets New Record, Killing 16,499 People by Euthanasia – Disabled Citizens Feel ‘Threatened’ | CBN News
[2] Canadian Euthanasia Deaths Surpass U.S. Gun Homicides Annually | The National Pulse
[3] Euthanasia Worldwide
[4] States Where “Medical Aid in Dying” is Legal: California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Washington, D.C.
[5] SB 291 | 2019-2020 Georgia General Assembly: This bill had only two sponsors.
[6] SB 610 | 2025-2026 Georgia General Assembly: This bill had eight sponsors, listed here. Be sure to watch for updates from GRTL and be prepared to contact legislators if needed in the upcoming months as we monitor this particular legislation in the 2027-28 session.
[7] Group Advocating for “Death with Dignity” to come to Georgia
Editor’s Note: Sergeant Major Joshua Ryan Jarrell, Ph.D., age 43, died October 29, 2024, and this article marks the two-year anniversary of his passing from this life to the next.
Georgia Right to Life
Guest Columnist