Christian Beliefs about Euthanasia
Euthanasia is the practice of helping people who are seriously ill and
in intolerable pain to die, either at their own request or by others
deciding to take away life support. I will be looking at voluntary
Euthanasia, where a terminally ill person asks for help from a doctor,
relative or a friend to die with dignity. There are other names for
voluntary Euthanasia and these include assisted suicide, mercy
killing, and easy or gentle death.
I will be discussing the beliefs of Christians on the issue of
Euthanasia. In order to do this, I will be looking at the Old
Testament and the New Testament exploring the actions of Jesus.
Euthanasia is illegal in Britain. All Christians believe that life is
sacred. Overall, Christians are against Euthanasia. The belief of
Christians is informed by the teaching of the church as well as
Biblical texts from the old and new testaments. The fundamental
Christians principle is the love known as Agape. This is Christian
love and involves acts of forgiveness, compassion, tolerance,
selflessness and kindness.
Though there is no mention of Euthanasia in the bible, there are still
some texts in the Bible which we can refer to with the issue of
Euthanasia. The Old Testament includes the Ten Commandments and Exodus
20:13, one of the commandments, ‘You shall not kill’. As all
Christians are obliged to follow God’s Ten Commandments, there should
be no exceptions.
Genesis sets the scene for the whole bible. We see that our life is a
gift from God. Genesis 1: 27 say, ‘God created man in the image of
himself.’ If we are all created in the image of God, then that makes
us all equal. That means that a terminally ill person’s life is no
less than that of a healthy person.
Psalm 139:13 says ‘You created my inmost self, knit me together in my
mother’s womb.’ This shows that we belong to God and therefore, our
lives are equally important to God.
The New Testament includes the two greatest commandments that Jesus
Coogan, Michael David., Marc Zvi. Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, and Pheme Perkins. "Genesis." The New Oxford Annotated Bible: With the Apocrypha. New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
This essay is dedicated to the expression of the various official views of religious bodies within our nation. Most major denominations are represented. These religions have long been the custodians of the truth, serving to check the erratic and unpredictable tendencies of political, judicial and social bodies which would have Americans killing off their elderly and handicapped.
When I was growing there in secret, you knew that I was there, you saw
Where Genesis I describes a more ordered creation - the manifestation of a more primitive cultural influence than was responsible for the multi-layered creation in Genesis II - the second creation story focuses less on an etiological justification for the physical world and examines the ramifications of humankind's existence and relationship with God. Instead of Genesis I's simple and repetitive refrains of "and God saw that it was good" (Gen 1:12, 18, 21, 25), Genesis II features a more stylistically advanced look at "the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens" (Gen 2:4). While both stories represent different versions of the same Biblical event, Genesis II is significantly more complex than its predecessor and serves both to quantify the relationship between God and his creations and lay the foundation for the evolving story of humankind as well.
didn't want to wake me. Then he would begin to howl, like a dog. When
A Christian Response to Abortion or Euthanasia Abortion is the death of the foetus (life) from the mother's womb whether deliberate (operation/termination) or accidental (miscarriage). Christians are divided in their views on abortion. The Roman Catholic Church does not allow abortion. They do not agree on the precise moment in human development when a human person begins to exist.
The catholic view of euthanasia is that euthanasia is morally wrong. it has always been
As patients come closer to the end of their lives, certain organs stop performing as well as they use to. People are unable to do simple tasks like putting on clothes, going to the restroom without assistance, eat on our own, and sometimes even breathe without the help of a machine. Needing to depend on someone for everything suddenly brings feelings of helplessness much like an infant feels. It is easy to see why some patients with terminal illnesses would seek any type of relief from this hardship, even if that relief is suicide. Euthanasia or assisted suicide is where a physician would give a patient an aid in dying. “Assisted suicide is a controversial medical and ethical issue based on the question of whether, in certain situations, Medical practioners should be allowed to help patients actively determine the time and circumstances of their death” (Lee). “Arguments for and against assisted suicide (sometimes called the “right to die” debate) are complicated by the fact that they come from very many different points of view: medical issues, ethical issues, legal issues, religious issues, and social issues all play a part in shaping people’s opinions on the subject” (Lee). Euthanasia should not be legalized because it is considered murder, it goes against physicians’ Hippocratic Oath, violates the Controlled
As the first book of the Old Testament convey, Genesis, and its Greek meaning “in the beginning,” life originated with God in the Garden of Eden. Accor...
Genesis also tells the story of how God made man and from man, woman. All of the plant life that was created by God and in the garden of Eden is supposed to be all of the vegetation that we have lying around our society, nothing more and nothing less. God created
Buddhist teachings and worship are what influence an adherent and the Buddhist community to change their lifestyles as they further understand the Buddhism way of life and its teachings. The buddhist method of communicating its messages includes the Buddhist views on Bioethics, Laws of Buddhism that promote influential change through the temple Puja, and the role of the Tibetan Buddhist leader the Dalai lama.
Genesis tells us who God is, who we are, and what we must do. It begins with the creation of every daytime and night time. The oceans and land are then formed, and then every living creature in the ocean and on land. When God created both animal and Man he told us to be “fruitful and multiply” (93), populate the earth in which he has made for man to rule. Most importantly he created the Garden of Eden and the tree of knowledge which separated good from evil. A serpent tempted and persuaded Eve through lust to eat from the tree, which she shared with Adam. Once they had eaten, the bond was broken from God and sin tainted their blood. They were banished from the Garden, and sent out into the world. Eve eventually gave birth to Cain, and then Abel after. Cain brought fruit from his soil, and Cain brought animals from his flock as an offering to God. God accepted Abels, but not Cains. Cain became upset and killed his brother. In chapters 6-9 of Genesis...
happen. Jesus knew it was his duty to go through with it so instead of
Christians' Response to the Issue of Euthanasia Euthanasia is currently a highly debated topic for many Christians and in this section of my coursework I will be looking at how Christians may respond to the question of it. However before I explore or begin to explain how a Christian may respond, I need to explore how Christians make their moral decisions. Christians use a number of sources to make decisions or discuss moral issues such as euthanasia. The first of these is the Bible.
Genesis is the first creation story. God creates, establishes, and puts everything into motion. After putting all of this in motion he then rests. He creates everything on earth in just seven days. Before creation Gods breath was hovering over a formless void. God made earth and all of the living creatures on earth out of nothing. There was not any pre-existent matter out of which the world was produced. Reading Genesis 1 discusses where living creatures came from and how the earth was formed. It’s fascinating to know how the world began and who created it all. In Genesis 1 God is the mighty Lord and has such strong power that he can create and banish whatever he would like. His powers are unlike any others. The beginning was created from one man only, God.