Moral and Religious Differences Between Euthanasia and Suicide

Moral and Religious Differences Between Euthanasia and Suicide

The word euthanasia can be traced back to two Greek words, 'eu'

meaning well and 'thentos' meaning death. Together they mean painless

happy death.

"Euthanasia is the intentional killing by act or omission of one whose

life is deemed not worth living" David Atkinson and David Field, New

dictionary of Christian ethics and pastoral theology.

Euthanasia can be split into four categories,

Voluntary Euthanasia is the action taken at the request of an

individual who whishes to die who is incapable of doing so, or the

individual is such a case that he/she cannot request help to die but

has left instructions to do so.

Involuntary euthanasia takes place when an individual is killed to

stop and suffering. In this case of euthanasia the individual is not

asked about being killed even though the person is in a position to do

so.

The third type of euthanasia which is non-voluntary is the killing of

someone who is not in a position to ask to die or live as for example

the individual is in a coma, he/she cannot say or be asked whether the

individual wants to live or not.

Euthanasia can be taken further and split into two more types, passive

and active. Active euthanasia is to end a life, for example by

administrating a lethal injection; passive euthanasia is the

termination of an individual's treatment.

Finally euthanasia can also be described as self administrated

euthanasia, which is to take ones life at their own accord, also known

as suicide.

Suicide is an alternative to death at the hands of someone else or is

committed for personal motives, but depend...

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... condemned anyone who asked for assisted death, as it is an offense to

human dignity, a crime against life and an attack on humanity,

Declaration of Euthanasia. For Christians especially suffering plays

an important parting their faith because Jesus suffered on a cross for

us suggesting human suffering means that it is a life lived in faith.

In the book of Job it describes Job refusing to take his life arguing

that the human race must accept suffering just as we accept happiness

and joy backed up by the Catechism "Sick or handicapped persons should

be helped to lead lives as normal as possible"

Jesus himself taught us to love thy neighbour and those who call

themselves Christians are asked to follow his examples, the problem

arises when regarding to euthanasia. Obviously stopping all suffering

and pain is important.