Euthanasia

Last week a friend of mine and I were discussing the issue of euthanasia. She feels that if someone considers their life is no longer worth living due to terminal illness, they should be allowed to choose death.

It is apparent that we are in the midst of a significant shift of opinion with respect to euthanasia. The growing public acceptance of euthanasia seems to some to reflect a breakdown in moral consensus.

I believe euthanasia is never God’s will. The concepts that doctors should not be free to give terminally ill patients lethal medication, and that there should not be guidelines for legal or non-criminal euthanasia come out of the view of a human person having fundamental dignity because he or she is created in the image of God.

In order to help terminally ill patients, it is important to relate Christian faith and biblical understandings of God and humanity. The belief that life is a gift of God is foundational. Therefore God alone has the power to take it away.

It is evident that the terminally ill patient has very special needs which can be fulfilled if we take the time to sit and listen and find out what they are. Attitudes to dying and death can only change if there is a new awareness of their meaning and the implications they have for people who must face the crisis of dying. Instead of participating in assisted suicide and euthanasia , physicians must respond to the needs of patients at the end of life. Patients should not be abandoned once it is determined that cure is impossible. Patients near the end of life must continue to receive emotional support, comfort care, adequate pain control, respect for patient autonomy, and good communication.