Assisted Suicide or Euthanasia a bad Choice
“You shall not murder;” that is God’s commandment (Exodus 20:13).
It will never be repeated enough in this society of libertinism that man has no right to take a human life. Unfortunately, killing a person has become commonplace and killing thousands of people a non-event. The book of Proverbs 29:18, says: “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint;” day after day, we see the confirmation of this biblical statement. Therefore, we have to cry out and make it be understood that human life is sacred at its beginning as well as at its end. Birth and death are so serious matters that they cannot be left under the exclusive appreciation and good will of men. They must be respected and considered under God’s guidance, the one who gives life and has the right to take it back. This respect includes not only protection of life but also the refusal of the use of sophisticated and extraordinary means to prolong unnecessarily the life of a dying person for a short and insignificant time without a reasonable hope of recovering. Without going against our Christian faith, it must be underlined that assisted suicide or euthanasia in general, should not be allowed, but on the other hand, refusing disproportionate means to maintain people in an artificial life is not equivalent to the acceptance of assisted suicide or euthanasia. Here are the two fundamental principles of the Christian position based on God’s word.
The Essay on A Way of Life for Searching People
The book Practicing Our Faith: a Way of Life for a Searching People is about addressing the need for sharing the fundamental needs of man to establish faithful and honorable Christian way of life. It explores twelve central Christian practices contributed together by thirteen individuals coming from diverse denominational and ethnic backgrounds. Specifically this book provides significance to ...
Human life is sacred from its beginning to its end. It is a gift from God who has given his commandments to help us live in harmony with him. Assisted suicide or euthanasia is murder. It is the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit. Assisted suicide occurs when someone provides an individual with the information, guidance, and means to take his or her own life with the intention that they will be used for this purpose. When it is a doctor who helps other persons to kill themselves it is called “physician assisted suicide.” In fact, it is simply a murder, a sin. Obedience to God begins by accepting the Ten Commandments as the permanent standard for our values and behavior. Sin is disregarding and refusing to implement what God tells us to do. No one has the right to decide when a human being should leave this world except God.
Unfortunately, today human life is so often treated with indifference from its beginning to its end. Hundreds of thousands of people are killed all over the world in a complete indifference of the super-powers who have the capacity to stop those massive killings, and it is also sad to realize how much the unwanted pregnancies are viewed by many people simply as an inconvenience or an unexpected consequence of their sexual activity. As a result, millions of unborn babies are aborted every year. In addition to those mass killings, another debate has appeared on the right to terminate one’s life when men estimate that time has come for a person to die but death is taking too long to come. Doing that, they think to be helpful to the sick by terminating his pain. Assisted suicide and euthanasia in general are first found in the intentions and then in the means used to accomplish it. “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams,” says the Bible. (1 Samuel 15:22).
The Essay on Life After Death 6
The Afterlife is an area of human consciousness we all enter upon leaving the physical world at physical death. Throughout history we've questioned if there is a life after death. Along the way, our religions and various philosophers offered beliefs and opinions to answer this commonly asked question. However, many of the answers contradict each other making it hard to figure out. "Belief in life ...
Let us now consider the second aspect of this problem. As we just have said, assisted suicide and euthanasia must be considered as a major violation of God’s commandment and simply a deliberate murder; morally unacceptable from a human being. However, our respect for life should not lead us at the opposite site and push us to refuse the reality of death. Of course, death is a mystery to be respected because it is closely related to life. Many people fear death. They would do everything possible to run away from it. They consider that death is terrific and has no meaning especially when it comes with much sufferance. Death is terrible indeed, and it is normal for man to rise up against it and suffering. Palliative treatments should be encouraged because sufferance is a harm and a hardship but, at the same time, unremitting medical attempt to keep dying people artificially alive, should not be allowed. When the end of life comes, everything should be done to help those who are experiencing horrible physical, psychological and spiritual pain.
However, exaggerated medical therapeutic harassments should be avoided and the use of disproportionate means denying the respect that the sick deserves must absolutely be forbidden. In these situations, when death seems very close and inevitable, it should be allowed, in all conscience, to renounce treatments that would grant just a precarious and painful reprieve of life. But normal treatments should continue. Palliative treatments are devoted to make sufferance more bearable for the terminally ill patients and at the same time make possible to the patient an appropriate human assistance. In those cases, the use of drugs like analgesics, sedatives, and narcotics to soothe or even eliminate pain is allowed even if it may diminish consciousness and shorten life. There is not here a question of pushing the patient to a heroic behavior. The patient should be able to prepare himself in full consciousness to leave his loved ones and to meet God. At this time, he needs love, psychological, and spiritual help.
To support their thesis, those who are in favor of assisted suicide or euthanasia might present four reasons which are: exceptions commonly accepted to murder; the respect of the human right to autonomy; deep compassion for the patient; and the right to die in dignity. On the first argument, they explain that the exception to murder is found, for example, in the right for every government to send his citizens to war, in capital punishment and in the accepted right of abortion when the mother’s life is in danger. On the second, they say that every human being has an inalienable right to dispose of his own life. That right includes the right to decide the ultimate conditions of a supportable life and therefore the right to prefer the accomplishment of an inevitable death. On the third, they talk about the idea that humanity includes a deep compassion which allows us to go even against what is usually forbidden when we are in presence of extraordinary human sufferance. Finally, they come with the concept of dignity considered as part of our humanity; everyone should define freely what he considers as dignity or indignity in regard to his environment and the look of other people on his life. When sickness destroys the body and annuls the dignity, man should be allowed to freely decide to end such indignity on his life.
The Essay on MD-Assisted Suicide & the Death Penalty
Dr. K: Physician-Assisted Suicide & the Death Penalty Liana R. Prieto (November 1997) We are faced with a case involving two morally disputed issues that involve life and death. Questions will arise as to the morality of physician-assisted suicide, and though I will address them, they are essentially irrelevant in this case because it is presently illegal. The morality of the death penalty ...
However, as stated previously, those four arguments are not valid, simply because: First, the exceptions to murder have a meaning only when life of an individual or a group of people is in danger, this is called legitimate defense. This is not the case in assisted suicide or euthanasia. Second, the supremacy of the autonomy of the individual leads to the idea that the most important value in the human being is that autonomy should be preserved by all the means is his independence that goes above all, even God’s law. It becomes, for the individual, an unlimited right on his own life. That is inconceivable. Man has no right to terminate his own life. It is a gift from God who is the only one who may decide to terminate it. Third, the decision on the legitimacy of assisted suicide should not relay on feelings and emotions that push us to refuse sufferance of our beloved ones; pity must be lightened by reflection and moral principles. True compassion should refuse with equal energy sufferance as well as murder of a human being. Fourth, the expression: “To die with dignity” is very confusing. The supporters of the assisted suicide mean that euthanasia is equivalent to decency, bravery, uncorrupted self image, and self control. But to the contrary, assisted suicide or euthanasia proves that we accept that, because of his sickness and the alteration of his physical image, the patient has lost his dignity as a human being. Therefore, the affirmation of the intrinsic dignity of the human being without any regard to any physical loss is implicitly denied.
The Essay on Evil Force Life Suicide Love
Fate Of A Life Suicide is still an action that takes many lives every year. Alternatives are open for people with this mental disorder when they contemplate this action. The question is how affective are these alternatives. My life has been revolving around suicide for almost five years. Here is my story, one that shows little to no hope on the issue. It s truly a feeling that nobody will ever ...
In conclusion, let us emphasize the fact that assisted suicide should not be allowed, and refusing disproportionate means to maintain people in an artificial life is not equivalent to the acceptance of assisted suicide or euthanasia. To let somebody die will never be equivalent to killing him. Letting him die means that we accompany the patient in this final, difficult, and sometimes long period, with kindness; this is contrary to the brutal action that voluntarily ends a human life which deserves respect. This respect includes not only protection of life but also the refusal of the use of sophisticated and extraordinary means to prolong (unnecessarily) the life of a dying person for a short and insignificant time, without a reasonable hope of recovering. Yes, “You shall not murder.”
