It is normal to wonder about how choices I make today will impact my future, especially some of our more major decisions (What school?, What career?, What vocation?). Not to think about how my decisions may impact my future would be irresponsible.

Granted, we don’t have all the answers, and often the things I imagine or hope for end up being very different than the reality. But despite the unknowns, it is prudent to pay attention to what is likely, or reasonable — to focus on some of the things we do know, to aid our decision despite what we don’t know.

This is where the wisdom, counsel and example of others may be invaluable — to look at others who made similar choices and see the choices facing us from a broader perspective.

This is also helpful when it comes to moral issues, especially when it comes to the moral issues which help shape our society. To look at the example of other societies and their choices can be invaluable.

Assisted suicide is one such case where a broader, more historical perspective, can give us valuable insight as to how a society is effected by its acceptance.

Advocates often focus on the immediate personal effects rather than long term societal effects. Assisted suicide is often claimed at the start to only be appropriate for those adults with a terminal illness. It is to make the argument (as morally offensive as it may be) that “they’re going to die anyway, so why not just help them do it sooner.”

Sadly, such thinking resonates with people who operate apart from any notion of redemptive suffering or from a sanctity of life ethos. A society which has distanced itself from God more readily accepts such reasoning.

But as Christians we must look at things differently than the rest of society, and look ahead to what that mentality is likely to bring in the future.

There is ample evidence available, for those who care to see it, that even if assisted suicide begins as an option for terminally ill adults, it eventually becomes a recourse sought for all kinds of other suffering.

Looking at countries where assisted suicide and euthanasia have been accepted more readily or for a longer time provides us with this perspective. It would be naively irresponsible for us to assume that what happens elsewhere, would never happen here. As the human heart hardens and darkens, similar results tend to emerge, regardless of zip code or address. A few quick examples provide serious food for thought.

In the Netherlands, where forms of assisted suicide and euthanasia have been tolerated for decades (even though only officially legal since 2002), a protocol for the euthanizing of disabled children and infants (known as the Groningen Protocol) now knows widespread acceptance. Previously only children at least 12-years-old would be eligible for euthanasia under the law.

In Switzerland, where a suicide clinic known as Dignitas offers assisted suicide for anyone, regardless of nationality, it is increasingly common for couples, or even families, to seek assisted suicide together should one person be faced with a serious (not necessarily even a terminal) diagnosis.

And then there is Belgium which allows euthanasia for pretty much any reason whatsoever, so long as the person claims they are suffering greatly. Blindness, depression, autism, even a disappointing sex-change operation are all reasons some people have chosen, and were allowed under the law, to be euthanized for, by a physician who administers a lethal medication.

Christians should oppose assisted suicide for any reason because of the sanctity of human life. But they must also look ahead as they fight laws seeking its legalization, realizing that even the parameters proposed by its proponents are not the whole story of what is likely to be introduced into society eventually.

Acceptance of assisted suicide in some cases, can quickly become acceptance for nearly any reason.