When medical professionals and social/thought leaders tacitly approved of Noa Pothoven’s decision to commit suicide, it signals a number of devastating messages to every victim of rape or great trauma.
First, it suggests to them that your life is not worth living; second, that evil ought to win; and third, that there’s no hope after victimisation.
Noa’s decision to stop receiving care and end her own life was a mistake. To suggest otherwise is cruel and dangerous.
Our Creator Jesus holds out His arms to embrace and heal victims of evil, but too often we ignore him and turn to hopeless alternatives.
Euthanasia is the lie that death is sometimes a solution. It is to embrace the antithesis of Christ who is the author of life.
Noa, who was sexually assaulted at age 11 and raped at 14, decided at the age of 17 to stop eating and drinking because, she said, “my suffering is unbearable.”
“After years of battling and fighting, I am drained,” she said in a now-deleted post on Instagram.
While lying in her parent’s living room, Noa admitted, “I have quit eating and drinking for a while now, and after many discussions and evaluations, it was decided [i.e. with family and doctors] to let me go because my suffering is unbearable… This is my decision and it is final.”
“I breathe, but I no longer live,” she added.
Noa predicted that it would take up to 10 days before fatal organ failure. Noa died last week in her family home – and what a terrible tragedy that is. Suicide always destroys lives.
May her family, and all of us find hope and healing in true Life, namely Jesus Christ.
