Religion Theme of Concern in EastEnders Soap Opera

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Religion Theme of Concern in EastEnders Soap Opera

Recently, in the hit soap opera EastEnders, the scriptwriters have

presented a religious and moral issue. The issue concerns the

controversial topic of euthanasia, and involves two main characters.

At the outset, one of the characters, Ethel, was suffering from a

terminal illness and was in severe pain. Therefore she asked one of

her best friends, Dot Cotton, to end her life. At this stage, Dot

faced a real dilemma, as she was in fact, a strictly religious

Christian, however in the end she disregarded her faith and relieved

Ethel of the pain, by providing her with a number of tablets. Ethel,

took all of them, and died of a drug overdose. This type of euthanasia

is known as voluntary euthanasia as Ethel asked Dot to help her.

This issue is both a religious and moral, initially, euthanasia is

prohibited by Christians as it is seen as ending a sacred life given

to you as a gift from God, in other words Christians believe in the

sanctity of life. This viewpoint is also shared by most of the other

religions, including Islam. The matter is also moral, as Dot knows

right from wrong, yet she believed that in that particular situation

euthanasia was the right choice. However her actions are debatable,

and some may believe she did not do the right thing.

There is only one possible solution to this problem, Dot could have

refused Ethel's request and left her to die naturally (but, in

constant pain). Dot also had the opportunity to give Ethel painkillers

to reduce the hurt, but she didn't have to help Ethel take her own

life.

The scriptwriters dealt with this issue in a very interesting way,

Dot's character is usually depicted as a very religious one, up till

the episode, which showed Dot actually assisting her friend to commit

euthanasia. After the incident Dot felt extremely un-comfortable with

herself, as she personally knew within that what she did was totally

inappropriate and immoral, not to mention criminal.

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