Christian cancer widow Kimberley Kuo on why she cannot support assisted suicide
Christian widow Kimberly Kuo is spoken movingly about her opposition to assisted suicide, likening it to original sin.
Kimberly is the widow of former deputy director of the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives David Kuo. In an interview with World Mag, she said that despite her own experience of losing her husband to brain cancer when he was just 44, she regards assisted suicide as man wrongly taking upon themselves the power that should be God's alone.
"Assisted suicide or euthanasia, whichever way it happens, is a false sense of compassion. [It] is very much like the original sin. We want to be God. We don't want God's help. We don't want to trust what God has for us. ... We want to be a god at the end," she said.
She believes that David's journey, despite the pain and the struggles, served a deeper purpose. Even when he was sick, he never stopped being a tool for God's ministry.
His strong faith became an inspiration to others in developing their own deeper relationship with God, because they saw that despite his sufferings throughout his 10-year battle with cancer, his belief in God's plan was absolute.
"A hundred friends, a thousand friends through the ripple of his ministry over the years who deepened their relationship with Christ, whose marriages were saved, who came to Christ out of atheism, who saw that, 'Wow, if this guy can raise the name of Christ in love, then maybe there is something to this, and maybe there's something beyond this'."
This is not the first time Kimberly has spoken up on the issue of assisted suicide. In an article for Christianity Today last September, she advised people suffering from terminal illness and severe depression, and the people close to them, to understand the true meaning of compassion and not be tempted by the idea of ending their lives.
"On behalf of people who are facing terminal illness, severe depression, or any acute suffering: Act with true compassion. Get involved in their lives. Be present in their suffering. Pray for their healing. Let the reality of death change your life. And rest assured that defending life is not merciless or judgmental—and that to endorse assisted suicide is simply to give up hope," she said.