Euthanasia and Christian Beliefs Essay -- Euthanasia Mercy Death Healt

Euthanasia Euthanasia is defined in the Chamber’s English Dictionary as â€Å" the act or practice of putting someone painlessly, or as gently as possible, to death†. There are various forms of Euthanasia, which I must explain before referring to the teachings of the different Christian denominations. The most common of them is Voluntary Euthanasia, where the patient decides for themselves, that they would prefer to be dead. They might decide at the time, or perhaps they might have written a ‘living will’ instructing doctors to kill them if they are ever in a situation where they will never be conscious again. There is also In-voluntary Euthanasia, were someone else decides against the patient’s wishes that would be better off dead, and enforces it in the act of killing them. Therefore it is often out-classed as Euthanasia, because it is not ‘gentle’. Non-voluntary Euthanasia takes place in a situation where the patient cannot be asked, or more correctly, cannot answer. This may be because the victim is a baby and can’t speak yet, or perhaps the victim is in a coma and is unable to respond to people around h im, but in this case a relative or doctor will decide for the person. It is also important to distinguish the difference between killing someone (Active), and letting them die (Passive). Killing a person is expressed in an action. An example of this, would be a doctor injecting his patient with a poison. Whereas letting someone die, is expressed in not performing an action. An example of this would be a doctor not supplying his patient with drugs that would save his life, and as a result the patient’s life is shortened. I will set, discuss, and finally evaluate a debate about Voluntary Euthanasia using contexts from both the Roman Catholic Church, and the Church of England. Some of the key influences I will refer to are Natural Law, Situation Ethics, Doctrine of Double Effect, The Golden Rule, Church documents, and the Bible. Ignoring all religious views, an argument for Voluntary Euthanasia performed by someone other than the patient, is that it is simply ‘mercy killing’. This would, under general Christian views, be just because it was an act of love, and after all that is what Christianity revolves around. One question, that must be answered is, ‘Is there a difference between killing and letting someone die, when it comes to an argu... ...f the family would suffer as a result of his death, then he should not die in an unnatural way. But, it is more likely that they will be suffering with him, and will feel the relief if he does not, and they do not have to watch him, live any longer in his painful condition. If this is the case, then they should back his feelings, and give him their support. It has been said that although the earth does not belong to the people, God did create humans to make their own decisions on it. Therefore in the case of voluntary euthanasia, there is no doubt that the end decision must be made by the patient, and not the doctor. If the patient is in a persistent vegetative state, then the appeal for his death, falls into the non-voluntary category, and is of no complication to my conclusion. As I have said already, the fifth commandment is addressing the point of murdering innocent people. Murder is when one person intentionally kills another without legal justification or excuse. If euthanasia was legalised, then it would not officially be murder. In such a case, a Christian would not be violating the fifth commandment, and there would be no reason why he could not be a supporter.