Religious Tradition view of Euthanasia

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Religious Tradition view of Euthanasia

State One Religious Traditions View Of Euthanasia

Euthanasia is described by the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘The bringing about of a gentle and easy death, especially in the case of incurable and painful diseases’ .

The Christian view of Euthanasia is that it is wrong. They understand, the pain and emotional suffering, caused in the case of terminally ill, but believe that a hospice is a better solution and that to commit Euthanasia is murder and a degrading act upon human life.

The most common argument for Euthanasia, is the idea of quality of life. This term was first created in the 1970’s as a term used to describe, the general welfare of a individual. This was gradually adopted as a term to describe a persons overall existence. This ideology, has practically become the argument used to morally justify the killings of hundreds upon thousands of unborn babies, who have genetic defects such as down syndrome and the international starving of brain damaged adults and terminally ill patients. To Christian, this argument has no meaning as we were all created in the image of God and it is believed that each human has a purpose to serve. They see each human as having its own intrinsic worth and to destroy any life, whether a young born child or an elderly person is the murder of a potential. The Christians also mock the quality of life argument as they believe that it is a biased opinion and we have no grounds or framework to judge by. The book of Job, argues against the quality of life argument. In this book, Job claims that suffering is part of being human along with happiness, sadness and anger. This points that if you are suffering, you should live through it and it will make you a stronger person. Paul says in Corinthians 2, For when I am weak then I am strong. He says this when he is trying to describe how he appreciates his “problem/thorn in his flesh” because although he wanted God to take it away he realises that it helps to make him a stronger person and a good Christian, because it reminds him to be humble. It is based upon this that he refuses to take his own life. The Christian sees a good life in respects to a persons response, to a particular situations, whereas the humanists will see only in terms of suffering and pain experienced.

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