Turn to a friend, not to an enemy!

NATHAN A. TALBOT

The request seemed simple enough. He asked that he be allowed to die. He was deeply discouraged. And who could blame him? There seemed no hope he would survive.

An increasing number of people today are asking anew an age-old question: Is suicide or euthanasia—in fact, is death in any instance—a legitimate alternative to what some consider insoluble problems of mortal existence? In effect, people are wondering whether, under certain circumstances, death could be regarded as a friend. Apparently the man described above was tempted to think so—at least momentarily.

His name was Elijah. Threatened with death "by to morrow about this time," he may have felt like the present-day recipient of a medical diagnosis that has defined a particular disease as terminal. The Bible provides the account of his flight from Jezebel's promise to destroy him: "He himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers."^{I Kings 19:2-4.}

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